One week ago, my Scout troop took a trip to the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium.

We learned
about animals, ecosystems, and earned the oceanography merit badge. Oceanography is the
branch of science that deals with the physical and biological properties and phenomena of the
sea. We learned about tides, the ocean floor and the properties of the ocean. We learned that
the ocean’s tides are controlled by the moon. We also learned about how salt makes things
float. This causes things to rise to the top of the ocean. Saltwater is a good conductor of
electricity. Many different kinds of landforms are found on the ocean floor. They include;
mountains, volcanoes, plains, valleys, and canyons. These are all vital to the ecosystem. Most
of these are formed by underwater earthquakes, like how landforms on land are formed by
above ground earthquakes. We also got to see the amazing animals at the Henry Doorly Zoo
and Aquarium. We saw penguins, lions, tigers, leopards, pumas, chimpanzees, gorillas,
macaws, tapirs, eels, crocodiles, albino crocodiles, black mambas, puff adders, komodo
dragons, birds of all shapes and sizes, sharks, sea turtles, alligator snapping turtles, fish, sand
cats, african desert cats, butterflies, and countless others kinds of insects. It is amazing how
much we could learn about the oceans of the worlds even though we were over one thousand
miles from them. There are four branches of oceanography: chemical, physical, biological and
geographical. The three main properties of seawater that are most commonly measured by
researchers studying the ocean are density, salinity, and temperature. Precipitation raises the
water level and drops the salinity and evaporation raises the salinity and lowers the water level.
Marine biology is often confused with oceanography. They are different. Marine biology looks at
the ocean from a purely biological point of view. The Zoo’s desert dome cost 31.5 million dollars
and holds many worlds records, for largest indoor desert, largest indoor swamp, largest
geothermal dome, and largest nocturnal exhibit. The dome is amazing large and has been used
to shoot footage for world series games. I wish that they had a more immersive area at the
Kansas City Zoo. The desert dome was amazing but my favorite part would have to be the
nocturnal swamp area at the end of the Kingdoms of the Night exhibit. It was eerily quiet and we
got to see how the animals live in their habitats. The aquarium was amazing and immersive and
holds four hundred fifty thousand US gallons of water. Some of the habitats, in order to be
comfortable to excotic specices, must be uncomfortable to humans. The Henry Doorly Zoo is an
amazing place and taught me a lot about zoology, oceanography and ecosystems. I had a fun
time.