Squid Dissection
For this activity, we used fishing bait purchased at our local fish market at the pier. We also purchased fresh squid to have calamari as a snack.
Students work with a partner. Each team is given one squid, paper plate, tweezers, scissors, small examining stick (I used a kabob stick cut in half) paper towel, and a worksheet for recording. Tables are covered with plastic for easy clean up.
Students begin by examining and identify the external features of the squid including the tentacles, eyes, mouth, fins, head, mantle. We discuss how these structures are used to help the squid live in his environment. Its streamlined body helps the squid move fast as it propels itself through the water.
It uses its feeding tentacles to catch prey. While holding prey with its 8 arms, it bites into it with its parrot-like beak.
Lift the squid and hold it like a flower, allowing the arms to fall back revealing the mouth. We removed the beak by gently pulling with tweezers. The beak is made of chitin.
Students locate the pen which is what remains of the shell that the squids ancestors once had. By holding the tip of the mantel and pulling on the pen, it can be removed and examined.
Next, students removed the eye and examined it looking for the lens, a hard, pearl-like structure.
Students taped the lens, pen and beak onto their papers. The remaining squid was collected and fed back to the fish and birds off the pier.
