Today was our annual squid lab. Cub foods in Grand Rapids usually has these frozen boxes of "calamari" in the frozen fish section, but this year they didn't have any. I talked to the guy behind the counter in the meat area and he gladly ordered some. I feel a little bad, because now the grocery store has 11 boxes of squid for sale and nobody is buying them. (A dozen boxes must have been their minimum order.)
Anyway, this is the best lab I do all year. Each student gets a cute little squid and we spend some time getting to know the external anatomy. Then we pull its little head off and look at all the stinky, slimy guts! They really are remarkable little creatures. When the lab is over, the kids help me prepare the mantle (body) to fry into calamari. Yum!
