Oceanography – Sea Star Dissection
Our marine zoologists jumped right in and started the day week with sea star dissections. Sea Stars are Echinoderms and are fascinating because of their simple body plan, which lacks a head. Campers observed the variety of interesting adaptations unique to the sea star, including a water vascular system and external digestion (stomach protrudes out of their mouth to engulf prey and begin digestion, then stomach retracts back into the body to finish digestion). Sea stars move and feed like no other organism on the planet.
Ask your camper: How many arms does a typical sea star have? Most sea stars have five arms, but there are some species with as many as 40-50 arms!