Title: Diving into Marine Life Sciences
Instructor: Mark Jensen
Dates: June, 2016 (summer)
Credit: .25 Biology
This course is an intensive, week-long experiential marine life sciences class where the
classroom is a 65-foot dive boat in the Bahamas. Prior to the class, students in the class will
learn how to scuba dive in Minnesota and all the students will have a lifetime PADI Open Water
Diver certification at the start of the trip. In the Bahamas, while diving several times a day for a
week, students will interact with a marine environment studying hundreds of marine species,
each with unique behaviors and habitat preferences. Students will also learn about marine
fauna and corals.
In preparation for the trip, students will research specific topics relevant to marine biology and
present their research to the class each night on board the dive boat. Going on the trip are two
credentialed life science teachers and a marine biologist who will also present topics to the
students based on the day’s dives. Students will keep a dive log recording their experiences
while diving. At the end of the trip, students will write a reflection on what they learned over
the course of the trip.
For their research topics, some students will present different phyla of marine organisms,
introducing the body plans and evolutionary adaptions of that phyla. They will discuss how they
get food, reproduce and avoid predation. Other students will present “special topics” that focus
on marine conservation, including marine invasive species, the effects of hypoxic zones on
pelagic fish, and the effects of climate change on coral.