Atlantis: The Lost Island

Before leaving for Key Largo, we first traveled over to Mr. Nichols 5th grade classroom to teach his students what we would be doing. The six girls that were going to stay in the Undersea Lodge are the ones that helped the students build it. To demonstrate the concept of the underwater lodge to them, we did the Atlantis: The Lost Island project with them.  The project was designed by Kevin Hardy. The basic idea of the project includes a mason jar, serving as the simulated habitat. When the mason jar is tipped upside down and pushed down in the water it comes out dry. Why? Because air is lighter than water. This is the basic idea on how the Jules' Undersea Lodge works.

The Jules' Undersea Lodge

The girls presenting to the class

The students used a mason jar, added some nuts and bolts, hot glued some adapters and airline hose into drilled holes and placed a plant inside.

Putting plants in their jar

The finished product

The mason jar represents the lodge and the plant represents a human. Before placing the jar in the water they had to turn the air pump on, the plant needs some source of air. After turning it on they placed the jar in the water. If they were to look closely they would have seen little bubbles blowing out of the adapters. This happens because the plant is receiving air and releasing oxygen, the little bubbles.

The results

The students made a total of 9 simulated habitats

Mr. Nichols and his class now plan on using the habitats to grow different plants and vegetables inside of them. They are going to measure them and take data on which ones grow the best.

Maddy Armstrong helping put a
jar together

Jamie Cool helping the boys build
their jar

Mr. Nichols' student then had the opportunity to communicate with our team while we were staying in the Jules Undersea Lodge and MarineLab. (Continued in the next blog post.)