Voyage of Exploration By Fine

Sapphire Group

Title: Voyage of Exploration

Connected 2012

Learning Intention

I am learning to find information in the text

I am learning to link prior knowledge and experiences to the texts I read

Comprehension Questions

1. What are the NIWA Scientists doing?

The NIWA scientists spy on a mysterious world teeming with strange life.

2. Why is there a camera on the ship?

The camera helps the NIWA scientists discover new animals and new plants under water.

3. Describe the seabed

The sea bed looks like fine, brittle stalks, growing in clumps. FIshers call it the wire weed. But this is no weed. Each stalk is actually a hollow tube, built by the worm that lives inside it.

4. What is the weed and how does it support other sea life?

The weed is called the seabed, fishers call it the wire weed. The worm meadow that lives inside the seabed supports a whole range of life. Young sea perch dart in and out. Sea quiets attach themselves to the wire weed and filter the water passing through their own bodies, drawing out small particles of food from it.

5. Describe the feather stars

Walking feather stars retract their arms when disturbed.

6. What new information has been gained from the voyage?

The voyage has found new information about the habitats and distributions of many different species, including species we didn’t even know existed.

7. What is the DTIS?

DITS is to explore the world beneath the waves. DITS is short for Deep Towed Imaging System.

8. How does the DTIS work and why use it?

The DTIS works at a very slow pace, allowing the system’s cameras to capture images of any marine life.

9. Describe the process in sorting the animals.

The technicians who work with the scientists divide the animals and plants into groups or piles ( each plant and animal will have its own pile or group).

10. What is a taxonomist?

A taxonomist is a biologist who specialises in classifying organisms

11. Why classify the animals?

Because the scientists are better to understand different, how they function, and how they work together in the ecosystem.