Get your feet and hands wet and salty as you learn how marine scientists study Long Island Sound ecosystems. UConn's Pre-College Summer Marine Biology course provides high school students the opportunity to explore the changing marine enviorment at a nationally ranked public university campus.
Learn how scientists are studying the effect a changing climate has on marine life
The course is designed to provide an overview of some oceanic processes and how marine biology and oceanography are intertwined. By studying oceanography we can begin to understand the impact climate change has on ocean processes such as ocean temperatures, currents, chemistry, geology and biology. This allows scientists to design and carry out conservation measures to protect marine life and their habitats and which we will demonstrate using Long Island Sound as our outdoor laboratory.
Our goals for you once you have completed this program are:
1) That you leave the program with a better understanding of how scientists discover and explain the workings of the natural world
2) How oceanography helps us to appreciate and manage our planet, and
3) How critical thinking can help us evaluate conflicting claims about where the earth's environment and its oceans is headed.
This will be accomplished by touching on specific principles of marine biology and marine science in general, applying some mathematical analysis, and hypothesis testing and applying reasoning that will converge all our topics to not only develop a better appreciation of the marine environment.
Elements of marine chemistry and marine physics are explored using instrumentation. You will collect data from field measurements and chemical analysis and record qualitative observations. Homework will be comprised of generating graphs and contemplating questions we plan to discuss during the next class. The discussions about the data and observations will generate a final group “report” on Baker’s Cove as a snapshot of the health of Eastern Long Island Sound.
Prerequisite: Students must have completed two years of high school science and math through Algebra I to take this course. High School transcripts will be evaluated to confirm this requirement has been met.
This class is meant to be immersive and students will experience:
- Introduction to Ocean Science
- Instruments and sample collection
- Physical and chemical parameters influence on marine organisms – it’s complicated!
- Explore an eel grass bed – view GoPro Camera footage
- Take physical and chemical measurement
- Study tide pools
- Conduct a plankton tow
- Conduct ocean acidification experiments
- Marine Ecology and Conservation
- Invasive species – settling plates
- Virtual tour of Mystic Aquarium’s Conservation efforts
- Marine Ecology and Biology
- Mussel filtration rates
- Dissections
