High school students experience marine biology in the Bahamas
When Chris Flight was about 10 years old, he went through a shark phase. He read books about the animals, saw them in aquariums and couldn't get enough of them.
Fast forward six years and Flight got closer than ever before to his favorite animal while visiting Bimini Biological Field Station in the Bahamas.
"I'm still interested in sharks," said Flight, 16, of Schaumburg. "I was definitely really excited about how we got to go to the shark lab and how we saw sharks when we were snorkeling."
Flight visited the shark research station as part of the Shedd Aquarium's High School Marine Biology program, which allowed him and other students a week of exploration and research in the Bahamas July 10-16.
The shark research lab also was the favorite stop of another trip participant, Marty Trojan, 16, of Hoffman Estates. Trojan said his interest in marine biology began with snorkeling and scuba diving on family vacations.
"All the snorkeling we did was really fun," Trojan said. "But the shark lab was my favorite spot because they were doing all the research on the sharks and they had a big pen out there and we got to touch them."
Besides snorkeling and observing marine biologists, trip participants spent their days taking surveys of plants, plankton and other fish near the Bimini Bay Resort.
"We learned how development in certain parts of the island is affecting local animals and plants," Trojan said.
Students decided collectively on the best ways to obtain data and then did the field work of collecting it - learning critical thinking, research and leadership skills along the way, said Colby Mitchell, the Shedd Aquarium's coordinator of community and mentor programs.
"We treat it as a program to help someone with an interest in a career in marine science determine if it's right for them," Mitchell said. "The great part about it is it changes with the participants."
The aquarium has been running some form of the High School Marine Biology program since the late 1970s, Mitchell said. Students submit an essay and go through an interview process to apply for a spot. Out of about 100 applicants for this summer's trips, 20 were chosen. Mitchell said about half of them were offered some type of scholarship from the aquarium to help with the $1,600 cost.
Trojan said the trip kept him busy learning new things, and he was surprised how quickly the week went by. The group spent most of its time on the water in an 85-foot research vessel, only going to the mainland of Bimini island for about an hour to visit a straw market in Alice Town.
"It was kind of crowded but not that bad," Flight said about the boat, called the R/V Coral Reef II. "We would go on there to sleep and eat and that was where we'd organize our data from snorkeling and plankton tows."
Participants also uploaded blog posts, podcasts, photos and notes from each day of the trip to www.wildernessclassroom.com, a distance learning site focusing on exploration. Flight said his parents and cousins followed along with the trip by browsing content that participants posted online.
"It was a great way for them to share what they learned and also the more emotional side of the trip," Mitchell said. "You really do feel when you leave the boat that you're with family. It's definitely one of those life changing experiences that's hard to capture and convey to people at home."