UNCW students write about their field trip for research

By Lindsay Key, Graduate student, Creative Writing
From the StarNews Online
Published: Thursday, March 24, 2011 at 10:12 a.m.

For a budding biologist, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime: an almost fully-funded trip to study the tropical ecosystems of Bermuda, one of Earth’s most mysterious places.

This spring break, eight University of North Carolina Wilmington students – Ashley Whitt, Heather Page, Jennifer Idol, Rachel Dixon, Renee Fucella, Zachary Siders, Robert McNeil and Laura Flessner – participated in “Field Methods in Tropical Marine Biology,” taught by biology faculty members Sean Lema and Alison Taylor.

The 10-day course, hosted by the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, is part of an exchange program with the University of Southampton’s School of Ocean and Earth Science in the United Kingdom, with students and faculty from both institutions involved.

Student teams explored the island’s rich variety of habitats, including coral reef, seagrass and mangrove communities. Each student was expected to identify a research topic, collect and analyze data, and present findings orally and in written form.
Read the Full Story