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Adjustments to a different educational landscape

Different systems

Less work

Difficulties

I thought it would be appropriate to write about the different educational landscape after taking my first round of exams for a number of reasons. First, it gives me enough time to adjust (kind of) to the different system, and secondly, it gives me a bit of time to reflect on the system as well.

I'll begin with a brief description outlining different education system. First, most students do not live on campus. Some may live two or three hours away too, which makes me feel awkward when I say I live on campus because the two hour is too long to do two times every day. Second, most classes are only once a week, which can make it easy to forget about work and procrastinate. In fact, my only class that is two times a week is my Spanish class taught by a professor with IFSA-Butler.  

In my classes, there is a lot less "busy work," which is bitter sweet for me since busy work helps me stay on top of content but at the same time reduces free time. This also translate into less exams. In each of my three classes that have exams, there are only two. There is a lot of group work, usually including presentations, but in one of my biology labs, it means a lot of lab/field work. In the same course, called Evaluation of Habitat, we had two weekend trips (one to a refuge and one to a biological reserve) to complete small, independent projects.

Adjusting to this new academic system is difficult, especially with the language barrier. I also think that since there fewer numbers of classes every week, it is a lot harder to get a feel for each professor. It is difficult for me to point to few particular skills that I gained during my first year of college that I have used here because for me, I always need to experience it for myself and then I find my footing. It is hard to do it quickly, but I think that the best way for me to make the transition is to simply immerse myself in the system and my work.

IFSA-Butler's main role, especially during orientation, was giving advice to all of us and letting us know that they are there to provide support to us, including offering free tutoring to anyone who wanted it.

FROM PANAMA TO MARIANA TRENCH:  FEMALE WHALE SHARK MADE A RECORD!

For two and a half years, scientists followed the movements of Anne, a whale shark, during which she swam from the coast of Central America to the Mariana Trench.

In 2011, researchers put a transmitter on Anne near Coiba Island in Panama. In the following 841 days, Anne’s transmitter sent a signal to the ARGOS satellite when it swam close to the surface. These trasmitter allowed the team to follow its movements to the south to the Galapagos Islands and throughout the Pacific to the Mariana Trench, to the south of Japan and the east of the Philippines. She traveled a distance of 20142 kilometers.

-Whale shark route from Panama to the Mariana Islands (black track) tagged in September 2011, and old record from Mexico to the Marshall Islands (red track, tagged in September 1995).

The finding reinforces the position of the whale shark as one of the animals that travels most, along with leatherback turtle, gray whale and the arctic tern. In 2016, the IUCN cataloged the species for the first time as threatened. Biologists calculate that tropical and subtropical seas have less than half of whale sharks that they had 75 years ago, which increases the urgency of their protection.

Read also: This is why whale shark aggregate just in 20 sites!

Photo: A whale shark at Gladden Spit, Belize. Source Heyman et al.,2001. 

Reference (Open Access): Guzman et al., 2018.  Longest recorded trans-Pacific migration of a whale shark (Rhincodon typus). Marine Records

March is Dolphin Awareness Month, and here at Sanctuaries, we love our dolphins! 

Dr. Nancy Foster Scholar Alexandra Avila photographed these Hawaiian spinner dolphins in Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. Spinner dolphins are incredibly gregarious, sometimes gathering in groups of several hundred or more! These dolphins feed at night and return to coastal waters to rest and socialize. Because they rest during the day, it’s important to give them lots of space – would you like someone trying to hang out with you when you’re trying to get some shut-eye? 

(Photo: Alexandra Avila)

What a Nut!— Invasive Species Week

This ctenophore (a stingless jellyfish-like animal) called a sea walnut is native to the east coast of North and South America. In 1982, it was discovered in the Black Sea, where it was transported by ballast water. It subsequently spread to the Caspian Sea. In both places, it multiplied and formed immense populations. The sea walnuts contributed to the collapse of local fisheries because they feed on zooplankton that the commercial fish also consume. Mnemiopsis leidy has also been discovered in the Mediterranean, Baltic, and North Seas.

Photo Credit: Marco Faasse, World Register of Marine Species

This would be so terrifying

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Meet “the sheep of the Mesozoic,” Protoceratops andrewsi. This herbivore was a very common animal and is remarkably well-represented in the fossil record.