THE MOONSNAIL PROJECT: A COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN MIDDLE SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES

We are involving teachers and students from middle schools across the country in a multi-year project to collect data on spatial trends in modern moonsnail (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Naticidae) predation. This study will augment a previously collected database (150,000 specimens) on naticid predation from Cretaceous to Pleistocene of the U.S. Coastal Plain. Previous work yielded unresolved questions concerning the spatial distribution of predation, which require a modern analog for comparison. In the course of addressing a genuine scientific question, students will learn about energy flow in aquatic ecosystems, physical processes of shorelines, changes in fossil life through time, predator-prey relationships, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses in an inquiry-based curriculum carefully aligned with national and state science standards. After learning to physically sample, identify and compare organisms from modern and fossil ecosystems, students will collect mollusk shells from shorelines near their schools and analyze them for moonsnail predation in order to test current scientific hypotheses on the evolution of the predator-prey system. Moonsnails kill their prey by drilling a distinctive beveled hole in the shells of their victims. The size, placement and frequency of these holes provide information concerning the identity, size, and behavior of the predator and the relative efficiencies of predator and prey. The distinctiveness of the drill holes allows data to be easily and reliably gathered by middle school students, yet the wealth of information the drill holes convey affords the children numerous opportunities for genuine scientific research. Our first workshop included 14 teachers from 13 schools representing Alaska, Washington, Oregon, New Jersey, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Each class will send its data to our website at http://www.moonsnail.org where all students will be able to observe directly the latitudinal differences in drilling and evaluate the primary hypotheses for themselves. Classes have also been equipped with web-cams so that students can directly communicate with their research colleagues at other schools and us.