It's almost go time! It's always exciting to anticipate our trip. It looks like we should have fine weather for our departure. We are meeting at NEC at 4:15AM tomorrow morning. Very big thanks to Prof. Mark Mitch and Dan Freese and volunteering to drive us to/from Logan airport!
This trip represents the culmination of a lot of work and preparation on the part of the students. We met weekly during the fall semester. During that time, every student had to learn to recognize 70 marine species on sight. This task was reinforced by online practice quizzes and weekly species ID quizzes. All together, students had a total of 193 photos/videos they had to recognize during the semester. Incredibly, two students (RC and CC) maintained a perfect 100% score throughout the semester, correctly identifying all 193/193! Those two students earned themselves a lobster (or otherwise) dinner at a fancy restaurant while in Belize. Great job! All together, the class had a total average of 92% on these quizzes, a remarkable achievement considering that most of the students are non-science majors. Great job everyone! This knowledge will serve us well when we are on the reef.
Our semester also included a trip to the YMCA to practice with snorkel gear and to learn some basics of snorkeling:
Everyone passed and seems ready to hit the reef! In just 1.5 days, these students will be stepping off the back of a boat into a coral reef on the open ocean.
The semester also included some social dinners where everyone was able to get to know each other and bond over their shared anticipation:
By the end of the semester, we had all formed a cohesive group, bonded in our excitement about the upcoming trip!
This blog will be our primary means of communicating while away on the trip. You can sign up for email notifications of blog updates in the box at the top of the blog. You can also follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/NECBelize/. Feel free to leave messages in the Comments section for me to pass along to the students.
My next update will be while we are en route! Thanks for reading.
- Prof. Eric J. Simon
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