Open Ocean Week Continues....

Well, yesterday was our first day out at sea and I have to say that the students were amazing!  I will let them share their stories through their blogs and as chief scientist for the cruise, I was impressed.  It was the first time for many of them and the conditions were not ideal (as is often with marine research) but they all held their own throughout the trip.  Also, hats off to the crew of the Weatherbird II as the guys were great with questions and extremely helpful for all of us as the day progressed.

 

I have been approaching this open ocean week using marine research as a backdrop- discussing the scientific method at all levels- talked through observations and questions to possibly answer while conducting research out at sea to trying to determine how to best approach the ever intimidating overflowing plankton samples we collected.  "How could you conduct a plankton population survey?"  Seems pretty straightforward but the students quickly found out that it's pretty tough.  Students were introduced to how to identify plankton groups and spent some time identifying bivalves and gastropods from yesterdays trawls.  Thanks to Dr. Scott Burghart as he came in for a visit when he heard there would be fun organisms to observe!

 

This week has been packed with activities and I am excited to spend the next two days with the budding scientists!  We are scheduled to go out to sea to continue sampling- mother nature may have other ideas.  Of course, I always have backup plans so open ocean week continues!