This week, we did a simple invertebrate lab where we observed and identified organisms of the phyla Porifera, Cnidaria, Platyhelminthes, and Nematoda. We took our simple invertebrate quiz on Tuesday and began our discussions of the Mollusk and Annelid worm phyla, which are more complex. On Thursday, we began our external and internal explorations of the earthworm. We learned a little about their body systems and anatomy, and we also learned important direction terms (anterior, posterior, dorsal, and ventral). We practiced our new vocabulary terms on our gummy worms before eating them. On Friday, we put our new knowledge of directions and earthworm anatomy to work. We did a live earthworm observation lab. Students had the opportunity to observe an earthworm's movement, external structures, and they even had to test the earthworm's reaction to environmental stimuli (being placed on its dorsal side, dry/wet paper towel, and presence of food). Many scared students were brave enough to at least touch the worm (and then again, some were still too "grossed out")! A special thank you goes out to all of those who brought in earthworms for us to observe!
Next week, we will do our earthworm dissection and discuss our final invertebrate phyla (arthropods and echinoderms).
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