How Big Can an Octopus Get?: teacher key

Giant Pacific Octopuses, grade 7 edition, written for 7th grade. Sources give different sizes for the giant Pacific octopus. Learn about its three hearts, its jet, its hunting, its smarts and the first weeks of life.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What do two of its three hearts do?
   • Pump blood to the gills (answer)
   • Make ink
   • Pump water out of the siphon
2. How does a giant Pacific octopus move quickly?
   • By walking on land
   • By jet propulsion (answer)
   • By flying
3. What do two aquariums say the heaviest giant Pacific octopus on record weighed?
   • 20 pounds
   • 200 pounds (answer)
   • 2,000 pounds
4. About what share of larvae survive the plankton stage?
   • About half
   • About one percent (answer)
   • All of them
5. In Alaska, giant Pacific octopuses are predators and prey. What does that tell you?
   • They hunt and are also hunted (answer)
   • They only hunt
   • They never hunt
6. What does larvae mean in: its larvae drift as plankton?
   • Adult octopuses
   • Tiny young octopuses (answer)
   • Eggs on the seafloor

Words

• siphon: water tube
• ecosystem: living community
• larvae: baby stage
• plankton: drifting life