Sharks are out. Squid are in.
For the past several years, the after-school program SAFE BASE has celebrated Shark Week. Elementary school students from kindergarten to sixth grade covered everything shark, such as the design of their bodies, how fast they swim and their diet. They even learned about the prehistoric, giant megalodon — a dinosaur shark.
But, as director Angela Henry pointed out, just 5% of the ocean has been discovered. There’s a lot more to learn, so SAFE BASE is moving on to squid instead.
This is “Giant Squid Week.”
FOURTH, fifth and sixth grade students got an intimate look at the innards of a squid during a dissection activity Wednesday at Jefferson Elementary School.
“Remember, you’re dissecting, not destroying,” SAFE BASE instructor Wanda Kneen warned them.
In groups of three, students first popped out the two eyeballs on each side of the squid’s head. Unlike human eyes, the lenses were very hard.
“I like the eyes. They were really interesting,” Izzy Tyson said.
Next, they cut off the eight arms and two longer tentacles. The squid uses the long tentacles to grab food and pull it into the mouth. They dug into the base of the arms for the squid’s mouth and removed it, then searched for the beak. The beak breaks food into tiny particles.
“It really does look a lot like a bird’s beak,” Lily Lohman said, carefully pressing the hard black beak with her finger.
They used scissors to cut through the long body, called the mantel. They opened it to reveal the inner workings of the squid, including the gills, three hearts, a feather-shaped spine called a “pen,” and an ink sack. The squid uses ink as a defense mechanism, squirting it into a murky cloud to confuse predators and swim away.
Some students, of course, promptly forgot about Kneen’s warning. They dug into the ink sack, dipped the end of the feather-like pen into the ink and wrote messages on their cardboard dissection platform.
The smell of formaldehyde mixed with fish wafted through the classroom and into the hallway, where it met the equally appealing aroma of fried calamari.
In another classroom, instructor Cindy Williams chopped off the squid’s tentacles and sliced mantels into rings. She mixed them with flour and spices, then dropped the pieces into hot oil.
Students sampled both the rings and the tentacles. The rings were more rubbery, they decided. They liked the tentacles better.
Overall, most students said they enjoyed the fried calamari.
