Saint Mary’s Fourth and Fifth Grade Students Chat with Undersea Scientists
On October 15, Saint Mary School, Gilroy, fourth and fifth grade students had the unique opportunity to connect live with the Exploration Vessel Nautilus, which was exploring the deep-water region of Davidson Seamount (an extinct underwater volcano) in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The expedition team was revisiting the area where last year they made an exciting and unique discovery of over 1,000 brooding octopuses.
Lead scientist Chad King, the father of one of the Saint Mary fourth graders, and his colleague, spent time educating the students and answering many questions.
Fourth grader Delilah Cortez wrote the following after the experience: “Today in Science we learned about the Nautilus. What I learned was that a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) can do some crazy things,” she said. “I also learned that some octopuses, before they lay their eggs, put a concrete, paste thing and put it on the place they lay their eggs. Then, they put the egg on top of the paste and then they go inside out and cover their eggs with all their tentacles around the egg. Something that was surprising was that they found one thousand [octopuses] in one hour.”