Mississippi Science ZOO.6.5
The Standard
- ZOO.6
- Students will understand the structure and function of phylum Echinodermata, and how they demonstrate the characteristics of living things.
Describe how the water vascular system is used for locomotion, feeding, and gas exchange.
2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · Phylum Echinodermata
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain how water pressure extends tube feet so a sea star can grip surfaces and move. They describe how tube feet hold prey and let oxygen and carbon dioxide pass through their thin walls.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given a sea star diagram, a student can show how an ampulla pushes fluid into a tube foot. They can explain how tube feet help the animal crawl and grip a mussel. They can show where oxygen enters and carbon dioxide leaves.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think tube feet work like ordinary legs, powered only by muscles. Some think the water vascular system carries blood or that a sea star takes in oxygen through its mouth. Others miss that tube feet help with feeding as well as movement.
How to Assess It
- Give students a diagram of a tube foot and ampulla. Ask: “How does this system help a sea star crawl, hold a mussel, and take in oxygen?”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Connect a water-filled syringe to clear tubing and a small balloon; push the plunger to model how pressure extends a tube foot.
Ask students to correct this claim in writing: “A sea star takes in oxygen through its mouth, not its tube feet.”
Have pairs sort cards showing a sea star crawling, gripping a mussel, and taking in oxygen, then explain each tube-foot job.
Show a photo of sea stars on an oyster farm cage; ask how tube feet help them reach and hold oysters.
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