VTVLC Marine Biology Bermuda 2016
I hope you will take Marine Biology and travel to Honduras with us next summer. The course starts in January and finishes in August. The school year semester is primarily on line with a few class meetings (evenings and/or Sundays- can also be accessed by Skype) and the summer consists of 3 all day Vermont sessions and the Honduras trip. See the syllabus below.
The two-week marine project in Honduras (
) features a robust and wide ranging research team looking at a number of core issues affecting the biodiversity of the reefs – including the decline of sea urchins that allowed algal colonization of reef areas, lionfish (an unregulated invasive species) spreading across the Caribbean that act as a predator of reef fish, and overfishing by local communities. The dates of the trip is 27th June-10th July. We can only take 16 students and we already have sign ups with no advertising. Contact VTVLC to register. I know it says Cuba, but soon will be changed to Honduras.
Marine Biology Course Syllabus
Description:
Marine Biology is designed to inspire young adults to understand and care about the ocean, regardless of what occupation they pursue. One of the main goals of my teaching has been to motivate students with authentic activities that are real contributions to the community and nature and that involve students with organizations outside the school. My students have collaborated with Friends of the Winooski, the UVM Watershed Alliance, the Montpelier Conservation Board, the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Science, and The Reef Environmental Educational Foundation to name a few. I have always found that students are motivated to learn more and at a deeper level when they knew their work was real and was available to the public.
The course is educationally innovative in that it is a hybrid course combining on line learning and face to face learning. Also it is multi school and multi age with students in grades 9-12 in the same class. The first half of the course will be primarily online but there will also be evening meetings and classes during this time. During this time we will be learning about chemical and physical characteristics of water, ocean origins, ocean environments (rocky, sandy, estuarine, coral reef, open water, deep ocean, etc.), invertebrates, vertebrates, and plankton. In the second half of the course students will be reading and using the following books in their preparation for research in Bermuda: REEF Creatures Identification, REEF Coral Identification, REEF Fish Identification, REEF Fish Behavior by Paul Humann & Ned Deloach. Students in this class are intimately involved with the ocean as they collect data while snorkeling or diving on fish species and their abundance. They also make direct observation of marine invertebrates, coastal plants and marine geology. Hopefully with such a positive experience with their marine encounters students enjoy and understand the marine ecosystem and want to protect it. Bermuda has welcomed our fish research in that we are the only group collecting this sort of data at shallow depths. Our data is available world wide at the REEF website.
As our amazing planet continues to change over time, it becomes increasingly apparent how human activity has made environmental impacts. In the Marine Biology course, students will delve deep into Earth’s bodies of water and study geologic structures and how they impact the oceans. Students will investigate characteristics of various populations, patterns of distribution of life in our aquatic systems, and ongoing changes occurring every day in our precious ecosystems.
In late June we will have 3 intensive days at U-32 to prepare us for our research trip to BIOS (Bermuda Institute of Marine Science (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.).
Students who are certified SCUBA divers will be able to collect fish data while diving on our boat trips. If not students will collect data while snorkeling.
Students will be required to document their BIOS trip through journaling and will be expected to collect and enter data on Fish Populations on the REEF Web Site (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. See vtvlc.org/students/bermuda-trip (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. for photos and more information.
I am here to help keep you on task, check on your work, and answer questions. I expect you to log in every weekday, Monday through Friday, to work on your class. Do not hesitate to contact me (e-mail is best) if you have any questions.
Estimated Completion Time: 2 segments / 32-36 weeks (second segment is in the summer and includes a week at BIOS).
Jamaica | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
Jamaica
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This video uses Google TTS en-US-Standard-D voice.
SUMMARY
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Jamaica ( ( listen)) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning 10,990 square kilometres (4,240 sq mi) in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the fourth-largest island country in the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about 145 kilometres (90 mi) south of Cuba, and 191 kilometres (119 mi) west of Hispaniola (the island containing the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic).
Previously inhabited by the indigenous Arawak and Taíno peoples, the island came under Spanish rule following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494. Many of the indigenous people died of disease, and the Spanish transplanted African slaves to Jamaica as labourers. The island remained a possession of Spain until 1655, when England (later Great Britain) conquered it and renamed it Jamaica. Under British colonial rule Jamaica became a leading sugar exporter, with its plantation economy highly dependent on African slaves. The British fully emancipated all slaves in 1838, and many freedmen chose to have subsistence farms rather than to work on plantations. Beginning in the 1840s, the British utilized Chinese and Indian indentured labour to work on plantations. The island achieved independence from the United Kingdom on 6 August 1962.
With 2.9 million people, Jamaica is the third-most populous Anglophone country in the Americas (after the United States and Canada), and the fourth-most populous country in the Caribbean. Kingston is the country's capital and largest city, with a population of 937,700. Jamaicans mainly have African ancestry, with significant European, Chinese, Indian, Lebanese, and mixed-race minorities. Due to a high rate of emigration for work since the 1960s, Jamaica has a large diaspora around the world, particularly in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Jamaica is a Commonwealth realm, with Queen Elizabeth II as its monarch and head of state. Her appointed representative in the country is the Governor-General of Jamaica, an office held by Sir Patrick Allen since 2009. Andrew Holness has served as the head of government and Prime Minister of Jamaica from March 2016. Jamaica is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with legislative power vested in the bicameral Parliament of Jamaica, consisting of an appointed Senate and a directly elected House of Representatives.