UpDate - Vol. 15, No. 25, Page 10
March 21, 1996
Horseshoe crab model a popular item in area schools

Do you know that...
   * horseshoe crabs are more closely related to scorpions and spiders
     than to crabs?
   * horseshoe crabs predate dinosaurs by about 100 million years?
   * Native Americans used horseshoe crab shells to bail water from
     their canoes and the tails as tips for fishing spears?
   * Delaware Bay has the largest concentration of horseshoe crabs in
     the world?
   * substances from horseshoe crabs have medicinal applications?

     School children across Delaware now can develop a model
relationship with horseshoe crabs thanks to a project developed by the
outreach staff of the University's Sea Grant College Program.
     Not only can students learn facts about horseshoe crabs and solve
a crabby puzzle, they can make paper models of the crab with its top
and bottom shells and long tail-like telson, learning the crab body
parts as they do so.
     After using the crab models in class, Sheila Anderson, a teacher
at St. John the Beloved School in Wilmington wrote the staff, "Thought
you might like to see some of the fruits of your labors. The horseshoe
crabs were a great hit! We're studying classification of invertebrates
and they fit right into science as well as 'across the curriculum'
into our study of Indians in Delaware.... Thanks for a great project!"
     Those in the College of Marine Studies working on the project
were William R. Hall, Sea Grant Marine Advisory Service, who authored
the pamphlet with Carl Shuster of the College of William and Mary, and
Tracey Bryant, Elizabeth Chajes, David Barczak and Pamela Donnelly, UD
marine communications.
     The publication, including the model, is available for $1 to the
general public and is free to school teachers for classroom use.
     For further information, call 831-8083.