Apologia - Zoology 2 - Lesson 1 - Nekton, Benthos and Plankton

We have been doing Apologia Zoology 2 - Swimming Creatures for Science and I usually put together some extras to go with it because my kids are more visual and memorize things better that way.  But I love the content of this book and my son (7 year old) loves ocean creatures right now!   We can use our laptop and plug it into the TV which is what we do for some of our learning.

"Apologia's second zoology book will take you and your family on an exploration into the wonders of the swimming creatures made on the fifth day of creation. You'll begin with a big splash from the whales and dolphins, then spy on seals and meet manatees before swimming with the sea turtles, snakes, and salamanders. You'll even peek in on the primeval plesiosaurus and its pals."

I googled several images of Nekton, Benthos and Plankton and put them on a Power Point slide.  As I read I put up theses slides through our television so they could see what I was talking about.  My son is a very visual learner and is a possible dyslexic so I do this for him.

 I also let them watch this video:

Of course I watch this with them and we talk about it.  I always preview the videos before hand and discuss something with them if it is not what we believe.

I then orally review what we learned and have them answer me.

Nekton -  animals that can swim!  Whales, seals, fishes, sea snakes, turtles, octopuses and squids are all nektonic animals

Benthos – animals that don’t swim but scurry, crawl, hop, scoot, burrow or slither across the bottome of the body .Examples:  Crabs, lobsters, sea snails, clams and sea stars.  These are animals that cannot swim. 

Plankton – they drift to and fro at the whim of the waters – most can’t swim or are very weak swimmers.

Examples – jellyfish, fish and lobster eggs,

Be An Expert - Marine Biology (printables) - I have them look at or color these while we do our lesson.

Stay tuned for the second part later this week.