Echinoderms
Associated Shape of Life Content
Echinoderms: the Ultimate Animal
Students answer questions based on the video - Echinoderms: the Ultimate Animal and other videos about echinoderms.
Artful Echinoderms
Echinoderms: Give me Five, an Ultimate Animal
"If there are animals from another planet already here, they're probably starfish."
Echinoderms: The Spiny Rebels
Modern echinoderms, which include sea stars, urchins, sea cucumbers and sea lilies, have a unique body plan with a five-part symmetry.
Paleontology of Echinoderms
Because echinoderms have a calcified skeleton, they are abundant in the fossil record.
Echinoderms and Human Interaction
Sea cucumbers are a tasty delicacy in some cuisines; informally named as “bêche-de-mer,” or “gamat,” they have long been used for food and folk medicine in the communities of Asia and Middle East. And some Pacific Islanders use the toxin in some species as a poison to help them catch fish. They also use the sticky parts of some species to help stem the flow of blood if someone is wounded.
Echinoderms and Climate Change
Read the Shape of Life blog about echinoderms and climate change.
Read the Shape of Life blog about ocean warming and sand dollars.
Echinoderms' Role in Ecosystem
What are echinoderms good for? A lot according to the Echinoblog
General Information about Echinoderms
Read ECHINODERMS: GIVE ME FIVE An Ultimate Animal from the Shape of Life Book.
More information about echinoderms. In the left-hand column, click on the bottom link, “Ocean Animals.” Another column will appear immediately to the right. Click on echinoderms. Unfortunately there is no direct link to this page.
Nature’s Innovations
Antoni Gaudi, the famous Spanish architect, found his inspirations from nature. From trees to light to whale bones, Gaudi used solutions from nature for structural support or decoration. He is not unique in using natural engineering to solve problems in our daily lives. In this lesson, we will investigate how, through the process of evolution, animals have solved their engineering problems and how people have mimicked those natural solutions.
World’s Most Awesome Invertebrate
After note taking during the phyla episodes of the shapeoflife.org, student pairs will randomly pick an invertebrate from the hat. After doing more in-depth research on their chosen invertebrate, student pairs will design and create a flyer that will promote the invertebrate’s special abilities. Furthermore, the students will find at least one video clip of their invertebrate from the shapeoflife.org website to present to the class as evidence of their claims. Finally the student pair will argue why their invertebrate should be crowned the “World’s Most Awesome Invertebrate.”
Biomimicry
Nature has inspired inventions since the first humans tried to make things. Biomimicry is the practice of looking to nature to help solve design problems. Today scientists and engineers are finding inspiration from animals and plants that may surprise you.
Where Science Inspires Art Creating Wonderous Figures
Look carefully at these images.
They almost look real. But they are actually astounding glass marine creatures created by the father and son artists/naturalists Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka. Every time I look at one I am awe struck by the extreme detail. How could they have done this?
Sand Dollar
Sea Star Wasting Disease
Activity: Invertebrate Critter Cards
In this activity students explore how animals are classified. For centuries taxonomists have been classifying the diversity of animal life based on observations and measurements of animals’ body plans. And now, with DNA sequencing, scientists have for the most part confirmed the work of earlier taxonomists. Students will learn the characteristics that define five of the major invertebrate phyla by watching videos, reading and sorting animal cards. The phyla are: Cnidarians, Annelids, Arthropods, Molluscs, and Echinoderms.
Plankton - It's a Way of Life
Virtual Urchin: A Cool Classroom Resource
It’s very easy to see sea urchin fertilization, cell division and embryonic development under a microscope. Realizing that the animals could be a great teaching tool in the classroom, the sea urchin development lab at Stanford’s University’s Hopkins Marine Station, led by Dr. Dave Epel, created the “Virtual Urchin” website. The goal of this project is to provide inquiry based lessons, available on a freely-accessible, open access website.