What are grunion? Have you ever been on a grunion run? By the end of this class you’ll be ready to take a late night field trip with the class to a local beach to watch this phenomenon called a grunion run.
Grunion are strange fish who actually lay their eggs on land instead of in the water like most fish. Why would they do that? What do the eggs look like? We’ll look at developing eggs through microscopes so you can see what is going on inside that egg that stays buried in the sand for 2 weeks at a time.
Why do the grunion only lay eggs during 2 of the moons’ phases? You will learn about the moon’s cycles and even look at some real grunion and learn all about what they look like and why they live such a strange life. Hopefully, we’ll even be able to hatch some eggs in class (don’t worry, we’ll release them into the ocean so they can grow up).
Finally, we’ll do Gyotaku, which is the Japanese art of fish printing. You’ll create beautiful Gyotaku of Grunion to take home with you.
Each family is invited to join us on a group grunion run.
The exact date will be announced at the start of the class.
Each student will also be given a schedule of Grunion runs for the rest of 2011 to enjoy with their family.
