Snorkeling...

The Science Mommy recently had a chance to take her Kid Scientists out into the field, on a snorkeling trip to the Molokini Crater in Maui.  Sharing science where we find it is one of the best ways to encourage an appreciation for our world in Kid Scientists.  In this case we also talked about why biodiversity is important and had fun identifying fish on the reef.

We started by buying an identification guide for the fish we were likely to see.  This one is printed on plastic, so I was able to carry it with me while we were snorkeling. 

My Kid Scientists were ready to explore the reef.

 We saw a Butterfly Fish...

 Some sort of urchin as well as many different species of coral...

 Lots of Yellow Tangs...this one was Aiden's favorite.

 We think this is a sort of Parrotfish, but it wasn't on our guide.

Lots of Surgeon fish...

...and we were lucky enough to see four endangered sea turtles.  Wow...this was the most amazing part of the whole trip!