exploratorium

Exhibits

  • A staff member and visiting guest interact with the Glass Settling Plate exhibit.
  • A sample from the Glass Settling Plate exhibit.
  • A fresh plate

    A fresh plate

  • The same plate after three months in the Bay.

    The same plate after three months in the Bay.

  • Barnacles

    Barnacles

  • Skeleton Shrimp

    Skeleton Shrimp

  • Bryozoans

    Bryozoans

  • Tunicates

    Tunicates

  • A staff member and visiting guest interact with the Glass Settling Plate exhibit.
  • A sample from the Glass Settling Plate exhibit.
  • A fresh plate
  • The same plate after three months in the Bay.
  • Barnacles
  • Skeleton Shrimp
  • Bryozoans
  • Tunicates

Glass Settling Plate

Explore the variety of organisms that live on our piers in the Bay.

Almost any hard object submerged in San Francisco Bay—from pier pilings to the sides of sailboats—quickly becomes a habitat for an ever-changing community of living things. Here you can use a joystick-driven microscope to take a tour of the wonderland of living creatures that have settled on a glass plate that has spent some time submerged in the Bay.

Where:   This exhibit is not currently on view.
Exhibit Developer:   Denise King, 2012

What's going on?

Drifting in San Francisco Bay are millions of tiny larvae. Each one needs a hard surface where it can settle and grow. The organisms you can see at this exhibit all grew on our “settling plates” after just a few weeks.

What you might find on the settling plate on any particular day at this exhibit is anyone’s guess. Skeleton shrimp with eerie red eyes, barnacles grabbing for prey, the occasional polka-dotted nudibranch—it’s an exciting world in the briny Bay beneath the museum. And the cast of characters changes with the seasons.

 

External resources

Zoomable High-Resolution Image of the top of a Glass Settling Plate. © GigaMicro.

Zoomable High-Resolution Image of the bottom of a Glass Settling Plate. © GigaMicro.

 
Subjects:
Keywords: habitat, organisms
Aliases: Big Magnifier, Creatures from the Sea Settling Plate

More to explore

Science activity used to determine the field diameter of a compound microscope
What's the Size of What You See?

Determine the field diameter of a compound microscope.

Science activity that demonstrates perception of camouflage and movement
Disappearing Act

If you want to stay hidden, you'd better stay still.

Science activity using light projected through a drop of water to reveal an abundance of tiny organisms
Plankton Projector

Light projected through a drop of water reveals an abundance of life.
Plankton Populations Exhibit

Use real data to learn about worldwide plankton populations.

Related exhibits
Bacteriopolis

This colorful wall is a living terrarium.

Bay Windows

Compare how gravel, sand, and fine silt settle out of swirling waters.

Plankton Populations

Different types of phytoplankton multiply or die off in response to changing ocean conditions.

Tidal Flow

Which way is the water flowing?