1. Take care of your equipment

Before moving on to the next step make sure to clean all the equipment you used in the field with fresh (tap) water and set it out to dry completely before packing them away for next time. This goes for everything that comes in contact with the seawater as well as the equipment you will use in the laboratory.

2. Identifying voucher specimens

Back in the classroom, try to identify the voucher specimens. This exercise is a wonderful chance to review taxonomic levels, animal body plans, and basic ecology. You may be more familiar with terrestrial animals; these samples will expose you to the much greater variety of marine life.

Each team should have its own workstation, with trays for its voucher specimens, a dissecting microscope, and available reference texts. Try and identify each specimen to family level, or lower if possible. But be careful! It is better to stop along the way than miss identify something, and note field guides can be miss-leading so make sure to cross reference your findings with as many sources as possible.

Remember to record your hard work: on a separate sheet of paper, write down the specimen’s taxonomic information, from kingdom to the lowest possible level.

3. Compiling and Presenting Data

When you have finished identifying your samples, compile the data into an Excel file (online data template for modified protocol coming soon). Each team should first organize its own data, and then combine data withother teams. Notes for the class room: This task can be completed as homework and then presented in class with visual aids. Try presenting not as teams but as `tide levels` in order to form an over all picture of your nearshore.

Presentations should include the following information:

• Introduction to the tide level and area being presented
• Raw data:
  a) Percent coverage and stripe/stem count of the macrofaunal groups
  b) Number of individuals of each taxa level (family, species etc) of the macrofauna
  
• Comparisons between the findings in the different replicates in the same tide level
• Summaries of what can be found in the area at that tide level
• Extras such as comments on things that you did not expect to find or things that you had difficulty identifying,

Discussion topics to follow the presentations:

• How are the tidal heights different in terms of taxa/species composition?
• Which tidal height has the greater taxa/species richness? Taxa/species evenness?
• Which tidal height has the greater overall diversity?
• Add "Why might this be?" to each of the above points.
• How do your results compare with your initial impressions?

4. Moving Forward

Delve deeper in to the workings of the near shore. Go beyond simple species lists. Contemplate how your species interact i.e. Outline local food webs, trophic levels, and ecological niches. Consider sampling on a regular bases maybe seasonal or yearly. By accumulating data comparison over time and through various local changes (large storms, construction etc) can be presented.

Join the NaGISA High School Coalition, and compare your results to other areas or simply write us to let us know what you are doing and share your experiences!