It all started with a Flatfish. A Summer Flounder, Paralichthys dentatus, to be exact. As a new Senior Instructor at The Lloyd Center for Environmental Studies in South Dartmouth, MA in 1989, Along with two interns, I was tasked with creating a new Outreach Program for three thousand elementary and middle students in only three months. Just in time, Flexi the Flounder, a seven foot anatomically correct dissectable Summer Flounder was born. Later I went on to make Winter Flounder and Atlantic Halibut models, but will always have a great fondness for my first model “Flexi the Flounder”.
Feeling Flexi’s eggs 
Explaining fish gills 
Looking at chromatopores
Flatfish are very interesting fish. They live on the bottom of the sea and have chromatophores on the top half of their bodies which help them change color to match their background. Unlike most fish, they have no swim bladder. Perhaps the most interesting fact about the flounder is that, when young, they have eyes on both sides of their head, but as they grow one eye “migrates” to the side facing the surface so they have two eyes on one side of their heads and none on the other. The “eyed” side varies with the species, there are right eyed and left eyed flounder. Can you tell which “eyed” Flexi is? Flounders are important fish economically, a great model for the classroom and can make an Instant Outreach program for your educational organization.