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- [Voiceover] This module is sponsored
by the Children's Services Council of Broward County.
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- [Penny] Hi!
- Hi!
- I'm Penny.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, and these are the KidVision VPK kids.
- Hi kids! - We're here today
to find out about marine research.
- Well, Penny and the KidVision kids,
you've come to the right place
because here at Nova Southeastern University's
Oceanographic Center, we have all sorts
of really interesting marine research
going on for you guys to learn about.
We're gonna start over
at our land based coral nurseries.
- Keri, can you tell us what's inside this tank?
- Sure, Penny. This is a variety of corals
that you would see in the natural environment
here in South Florida, right on our coral reefs.
We have several different species of coral
for you guys to look at today.
The main one that we have
are all these branch-y ones you see out here.
Like these, this is called staghorn coral.
What do you guys know about coral?
- They look like a rock but they're actually living
and they also give homes for other creatures
and they grow on rock and there's many different kinds.
- [Keri] These corals grow and make all their branches,
it gives great habitat for fish
and other little animals to come and take shelter
in those branches so predators can't come by
and get them.
It's very important for the fish here in Florida
that they have all these healthy corals
so that they can have somewhere to live.
- It feels like hard rock. . .
- Does it feel a little slimy?
- But it feels that slimy, wow.
- [Keri] Then they grow from up here.
You see how that's nice and white?
That's because it's growing actively
from these points and that's where
the new coral is growing and being formed.
- [Penny] So you grow these here
and then you transplant them into the ocean?
- [Keri] Yep. And we can actually
do a little bit of that today.
Do you guys wanna help me make new coral?
- Yes!
- Does that sound fun?
We start all our new corals on these little cement plugs
and then we're gonna take one of our corals
that's ready to be cut.
- So we're going to grow coral from coral?
- We are. We are going to essentially
prune the coral, glue it onto a new rock,
and one day that'll grow into a new coral.
That's how this coral started;
one day it was only this big and now,
about nine months later, it looks like this.
The corals don't have brains so it doesn't hurt them.
This is actually just like super glue, very similar.
So here, you gonna start, Matilda?
- Yeah.
- Just put it in there and now hold onto it, hold onto it.
- [Penny] You have to hold on tight.
- Yep, and just wiggle it around a little bit.
And now we're just gonna lay it down like this.
Put it on there, and now I'll hold onto it
and we'll just lay it down so it can harden up
and then in just a few minutes it'll be stuck to the rock
and we can put it back in our coral nursery
to grow into a new coral.
Remember we were at the coral nursery outside,
and now we brought one of those pieces of coral
from the nursery upstairs so we can get
a closer look at it under one of our microscopes.
This microscope's great because it has
this camera on the top so it's actually
sending the image right to the screen.
So what we're looking at on the screen
is actually the coral that's here
in the dish under the microscope.
Now you see this right here?
- Yeah. - [Keri] It is a live coral
up close through the microscope.
This brown area around here is just it's tissue,
sort of like it's skin, and then in here
is where the mouth is.
These little bumps you see right here
are the coral's tentacles.
And each one of these little cups is a coral mouth.
So this is a whole colony
of individual animals, each one with a mouth,
it's all living together in this skeleton.
This microscope uses these lenses that it has,
both in the eye pieces and this lens,
to make everything bigger so that
we can look at it more closely.
- What other tool makes things look bigger?
- A magnifying glass.
- Good question, because a microscope
makes things look bigger more than a magnifying glass.
- [Penny] That's right! (kazoo noise)
- Hi guys, I'm Doctor Tami Frank.
I run the Deep Sea Biology Lab.
What I want you to do is touch the outside
of that, and see how papery thin that is?
- [Children] Yeah.
- [Tamara] That's because these guys
spend all their time swimming in the water
so they have to be really light.
This guy spends all his time on the bottom.
Now feel how hard and heavy that is.
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- Okay, now, what do you think
these little berries are there?
It's eggs. That's how these guys carry their eggs.
- [Penny] Wow, that's so many eggs!
- [Tamara] So when the eggs are ready to hatch,
then they just go out into the water.
Now you see the color of this guy,
and you see the color of this guy?
When we first sort the animals,
we first look at the colors.
This is Charlie and this Eric. - Hello!
- And they're gonna show you how we sort things out
by their physical characteristics.
- Okay guys, so we're gonna separate these
based on their physical properties
so by that I mean their color, their size, and their shape.
So if you see this one right here,
this one's nice and red, right?
So we're gonna put that over here
with the other red shrimp.
And now this one, see how this one's nice and white?
We're gonna put that over here
with the other white shrimp.
And now, did you see how both of those were really big?
Now we're gonna go to one of these guys.
See how small that guy is?
So we're gonna put him over here
with the other small shrimp.
You guys think you got it? - Yes.
- You guys wanna do it? - Yes.
- Here we go, why don't you guys try to do some?
(gentle techno drums)
- [Charlie] A lot of them we have to look at under
the microscope to see the differences
and then we're gonna ID them
based on their different physical characteristics.
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- Today we're gonna talk a little bit about
tiger sharks. Do you know what a tiger shark is?
- Yes. A tiger shark has stripes
and it has a brown back and a white belly.
- They have shoulders that are holes
that they use to breath out.
- Those are actually called gill slits
and that's what allows sharks to breathe underwater.
As they swim, the water filters through their gills,
and they absorb the oxygen.
And now I'm gonna show you where tiger sharks move.
His name is Harry.
Harry, actually during the warmer months,
he moves offshore into the colder water
and we see him acting as an open ocean shark,
and then when it gets colder,
he actually heads down into the Caribbean Islands,
travels by the Bahamas here, you can see us here in Florida,
and then comes back down to Puerto Rico
and the Virgin Islands and spends a bit of time there.
Sharks are the apex, or top, predators of the ocean
so they eat a lot of different things
and they have to be able to have strong teeth to do it.
So this is a shark jaw, and you'll notice
there's multiple rows of teeth.
- [Child] Yes, and they're very sharp.
- [Alexandria] Yeah, you can touch them.
Feel how sharp those teeth are.
The teeth of a tiger shark are almost like
a saw; they have these serrated edges
and they allow them to break through turtle shells.
Could you imagine?
And they may even lose a tooth.
And what happens is, because they have
these multiple rows of teeth,
they can fill that tooth back in
and have it be replaced.
They don't even have to go to the dentist.
Their jaw is not attached to their skull.
Remember, sharks don't have any bones,
they're all made of cartilage.
So there are lots of different types of sharks.
This is a stuffed animal of a blue shark.
Now let's look at the fins.
So this is the dorsal fin right here,
and I actually have a real dorsal fin.
Where it would go on the shark is on it's back.
This would be a pectoral fin, or like an arm fin,
and that would go right here on the shark.
They use this big, long caudal, or tail, fin
to move side to side.
(gentle techno music)
- [Penny] So if we were sharks,
we would our tails, right?
So everyone move your tails like a shark.
Move your bottom side to side
and now let's bite like a shark does.
Protrude out. Right, good biting!
Thank you so much for showing us
NSU's Oceanographic Center today.
We really had a good time and learned a lot
about being marine scientists today.
Thank you!
- Thanks for coming kids. Thank you, Penny.
- Bye!
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