Although squid is not foreign to the members of Upper School science department head Joe Rozak's marine biology course, this particular squid was a little out of the ordinary.

Earlier this school year, the students dissected a small squid as part of the course's annual list of dissection items. They cut it, weighed it, measured it, recorded it, and then dumped it.

This time, this squid was not about to be cut open and laid aside.  The smell alone was enough to bring passerby into the laboratory for a closer look.

"I happened to be looking online for something and came across a website entitled 'Squids for Kids,'" explained Rozak.  "And what they were offering was very exciting!  A Humbold Squid was available and ready to be shipped anywhere in the United States for a small cost.  I felt it would be a nice addition to our coursework.  Little did I know that when the crate arrived from Half Moon Bay, Calif., there would be a 28-pound, four and a half-foot squid sitting in dry ice!  It took more than 24 hours to thaw, and even when we cut into it, the squid hadn't been fully defrosted. But we ventured on!"

Stephanie Seiden '10, Cameron Metzker '10 and Allison Hall '10 provided some memories of what they described as "Mr. Rozak's highlight of the year in Marine Biology."

"People were calling dibs on the parts of the squid they wanted to dissect - like, 'I got the eyeballs; I got the beak!' so that was fun."

"We named it Josephina for Mr. Rozak."

"We used the pen and the ink sack that we pulled out of the squid, and made a poster and signed all of our names on it - it was a lot of ink!"

Don't worry - there was some actual science going on.  The students still measured the width, the fins, the arms and the eyes, and pulling the beak apart was like "watching a live birth," said Mr. Rozak. "It was a little squirty."

"Squid, which are warm-water animals, are usually found in the ocean off Southern California," said Rozak. "But now they are finding them in a lot of different areas, from Alaska to Chile. Some of the squid's characteristics include aggressive in nature and eaters of everything!"

Once the class had completed the dissection and wrote about the lab they had performed, their research was sent back to the Squids for Kids program.  But they weren't done yet, as Mr. Rozak treated the class to some fancy cooking - of Humbold squid!