Many students will have heard of brine shrimp, some may even have grown them at home. In Brine Date, they'll study brine shrimps in more detail, looking at their mating habits.
In the classroom, the preamble to this investigation is biological observation (as Darwin the naturalist would have made) of the mating pairs. Then, through a teacher-led discussion, students can suggest ways of investigating the phenomenon of mate-guarding. This discussion will generate hypotheses - for example, larger males may pair with larger females
. The experiment will then encourage them to test their hypotheses.
What's in the kit?
The Brine Date kit contains everything you need to carry out the experiment in school, including:
- Artemia (brine shrimp) cysts
- Artemia algal food culture
- teacher and technician notes
-
a book – 99% Ape: How Evolution Adds Up, by Jonathan Silvertown
How long will it take?
Brine shrimps will become sexually mature two to three weeks after hatching. The process of observation, experiment design and testing is flexible – it could be carried out in a couple of lessons, or over several days.
How do I order?
Follow the links on this page, or click here. Remember, the kits are completely free to UK state secondary schools. You are entitled to one kit for each age group in your school, so take a look at our other two experiments too!
You can also purchase extra kits or spare algae if you would like to repeat the experiment or if you not eligible for a free kit.
