Schools
St. Luke’s Students Think Like An Octopus
See a video and read about the device made by St. Luke's Marine Science students to entertain a local octopod.
St. Luke’s Marine Science classes successfully conceived, launched and completed Project Octopus (aka Proctopus). The goal was to invent, design, and build enrichment devices for the giant Pacific octopus at Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk. Wild octopods are highly intelligent invertebrates. There are more nerves in each of their eight arms than there are in their brains, which essentially means each arm has a mind of its own. Consequently, captive octopods in aquariums get bored easily and need enrichment devices.
The project began when Marine Science students and their teacher Dr. John Higgins visited the octopus named Tater at the aquarium and studied her reclusive and shy behavior. Classes worked closely with St. Luke’s designLab Director Michael Mitchell in the school’s state-of-the-art designLab space to develop puzzle boxes that would be used to feed, challenge, entertain, and draw Tater out of her aquatic den.
From inception to prototype to finished project, St. Luke’s Marine Science students thought like an octopus building six unique puzzle devices. Unfortunately, Tater unexpectedly died and Proctopus was temporarily on hold. Thankfully, the aquarium acquired a new octopus. The students excitedly made final adjustments to their devices and returned to the aquarium. The results were nothing short of incredible. The new, unnamed, female octopus explored each device with intrigue and curiosity. Each device will provide months of learning, enrichment, and entertainment for both the giant Pacific octopus at the aquarium.
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St. Luke’s Quinn Gregorich ‘20 appreciated that the work on Proctopus had an impact outside of school: "It was a real-life and applicable project that was cool to take outside of school. We actually saw the scientific process in motion. I loved it! The process isn’t perfect and linear; science is bumpy and that’s normal."
View a video of Project Octopus in action for the first time at the aquarium.
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St. Luke's is a secular private school in New Canaan, CT for grades 5-12. St. Luke's mission is an exceptional education that inspires a deep love of learning, a strong moral compass, the commitment to serve, and the confidence to lead. St. Luke's Center for Leadership advances our mission by helping students develop exceptional leadership ability. Visit today.
