Students Enjoy A Hands-On Field Trip
Posted June 11, 2004FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Students taking the lab section of the marine biology and oceanography courses at YCP get a bonus. This bonus includes a three day field trip to the Marine Science Consortium in Wallops Island, VA. This is an exciting opportunity to investigate the marine environments that the students are learning about in class in a hands-on fashion. The goal of these trips is to observe the animals and examine the physical, chemical, and geological features of the environment. The class visits sand dunes, a high-energy beach, a low-energy beach, and a salt marsh. They also participate on a boat trip to trawl in nearby channels. During the trawls, they have caught an amazing variety of organisms. Forty students were on the last trip, which took place over the Memorial Day weekend, six dogfish shark, clearnose skates, a pufferfish, an enormous summer flounder, black seabass, two pipefish, and a seahorse (just to name a few) were caught. The class was also lucky enough to see a large pod of dolphins! Although all of the organisms that are caught are normally released, they did bring home the pipefish and seahorse, which can be observed in the new "seahorse tank" in the biology hallway.
Pictured: The group is holding a "drifter" that they built. The "drifter" and orange were used to learn how the currents flow around Assateague Island.
