From the FM metro to the oceans: Junior Aquarist Program

MOORHEAD, Minn. (KVRR)  — “It’s so cool!!! It feels so cool,” sounds the voices of a group of a dozen or so elementary-schoolers crowded around a single net borne aloft by a camp instructor who’s just snagged a flappy, floppy, but still-reasonably-cooperative Atlantic stingray in the basement of the biosciences department.

They’re petting the small animal gently — adhering to the “two-fingers” rule to protect the delicate aquatic animal and children alike — and admiring her smooth skin and graceful wings before the instructor slides the creature back into the water.

It is cool, and not just because adult and children alike are standing directly in the splash zone of the stingray and horseshoe crab enclosure.

The children are learning the basics of marine biology, the planet’s oceans, and how they may not be as far away from us as they seem here in the Red River Valley.

That’s the focus at MSUM’s Junior Aquarist class.

It’s one of the many popular programs at the university’s “College for Kids and Teens.”

The program gives children a chance to learn about all the 50 different species at the Oceanarium, including pufferfish, seahorses, sea urchins, anemones, horseshoe crabs and jellyfish.

They can feed the animals, learn how to keep their enclosures clean and healthy, and practice handling them safely.

Most importantly, they can come to make the connection between how their behavior here at home can have direct impacts on the creatures of the world’s oceans.

For more information on the Junior Aquarist class and the other programs at the College for Kids and Teens click here.