Bring marine life indoors.David Vaugnan teaches high-school science at the Waynflete School Waynflete School is a private day school in Portland, Maine, located at 360 Spring Street in Portland's West End. Waynflete was founded in 1898 by Agnes Lowell and Caroline Crisfield and is one of two notable independent private schools in the greater Portland area, the other being in Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine, with a 2004 population of 63,882. Portland is Maine's cultural, social and economic capital. Tourists are drawn to Portland's historic Old Port district along Portland Harbor, which is at the mouth of the Fore River and part . Although he's had an aquarium in his class for the 20 years he's taught science, he just bought a Touch Tank this year. Already, he says it's made a world of difference for his students. "The Touch Tank is lower and wider so students can lean over it and take organisms out." he says. His students check out the Touch Tank every single day, which wasn't the case with the former aquarium. "Right now we have two male lobsters jousting jousting Medieval Western European mock battle between two horsemen who charged at each other with leveled lances in an attempt to unseat the other. It probably originated in France in the 11th century, superseding the mêlée, in which mock battles were held between with each other," says Vaughan. "We read a book about lobster behavior and witnessed it firsthand first·hand adj. Received from the original source: firsthand information. first ." What is a Touch Tank? A Touch Tank is a movable acrylic aquarium that can last up to 20 years. The tank's design allows teachers to recreate sea life to a remarkable degree of accuracy. Teachers can stock it with crabs, oysters, sea cucumbers, sea stars, sand dollars, periwinkles, mussels, hermit crabs, crayfish crayfish or crawfish, freshwater crustacean smaller than but structurally very similar to its marine relative the lobster, and found in ponds and streams in most parts of the world except Africa. Crayfish grow some 3 to 4 in. (7.6–10. and other species that dwell in lakes, rivers and coastal waters. www.touchtanksforkids.org |
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