FARMINGTON — Second-grader Allison Casavant picked up a sea scallop Wednesday and the creature slightly opened its mouth and closed it fast.

Casavant’s face lit up when the scallop did what she expected it to do. She warned students not to put their fingers in the shell, because it could close on them.

Casavant was one of several students in Lisa Larrabee’s class at Mallett School who did research on sea creatures that have no backbones. The students jotted down notes and shared what they learned with second-graders in Cindy Stevens’ class.

Larrabee has the Ocean Touch Tank, on loan from the Maine State Aquarium in Boothbay, set up in a second-floor project room.

She had her students get containers with the help of substitute teacher Dan Devine and added sea water to them. They were able to pick up the sea creatures in a cooler-like tank and put them in the bucket.

But first, Larrabee went over the rules of handling the sea animals.

If students had washed their hands with soap, they were asked to rinse them before touching the creature.

Larrabee told them they should pick the creatures up by main body parts and not legs or other parts.

Their task was to teach second-graders in Stevens’ class all they knew about their particular creature.

“Read over your notes,” Larrabee said.

Cameron Rosie had a horseshoe crab in his bucket.

“We have been actually studying these for half the year and we did a giant word search on them,” he said.

Aiden Wilkins was in charge of a large barnacle. Among the facts he learned is the creature never pokes its head out, only its feet, he said. They also attach themselves to animals and usually live out their lives there, he said.

The barnacle is a rare animal to see, Wilkins said.

dperry@sunmediagroup.net

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