Discovering Bays and Estuaries...

Today we went to a homeschool class at Ripley's Auqarium of the Smokies with some friends. It was called "Discover Bays and Estuaries"... It was a great class and the trip to the aquarium was a great finish to a study on Australia since the kids got to see some great sea life and corals ( just like the "Great Barrier Reef")...

In the class the kids learned that salt water is measured by the "salinity gradient" or the change in saltiness. It is measured in parts per 1000 or PPT ~ the number of grams of NaCl per liter...

Here's some other things that we learned ~

Bay and estuaries are classified by their geologic history and formation. Bays are mostly from melted glaciers and water warmed at sea level and created in low-lying areas.  There are several types of bays and estuaries...

Bar-built estuaries are "sandbars"... deltas formed at the mouth of large rivers or seas where the sediment gathers...

Tetonic estuaries are caused by the movement of the Earth's crust...

Fjords are narrow valleys with steep sides created by moving glaciers..

After our lesson, the kids got to do a craft ~ making halite mosaics (common rock salt ) that had been dyed with food coloring.. You can see how to make them here.  They were easy and fun ~ except for the blue fingers that my DD now has (hopfully it will wear off in a few days *LOL*)

Libby working on her mosaic...
 Tommy working on his mosaic...

After the class we finished walking around the aquarium and got to see the new penguin exhibit (which is only new to us ~ it's been there for about a year)... The kids (and me too) loved crawling through the tunnels of the habitat and looking at the penguins...

Then