Fourth Observation

As most of you may know, I am doing the subculture of people who study marine biology. I have specifically narrowed it down to studying the people of Nova Southeastern's Oceanographic Center. I finally was able to make my first trip to the center. At the center there are 15 full-time faculty members, 6 research scientists, and 11 professors that specialize in different marine science research. There are many graduate students there that are research assistants, which, is great because then they can do work in their area in which they study. The center has three buildings on its ten-acre campus. The largest building is known as the Forman building, which contains classrooms, offices, laboratories, and a library which has 83 subscriptions to journals, 3000 books and monographs that can all be accessed by the online catalog. The next building is called the Shore building, which contains the graduate program offices, administration offices, the National Coral Reef Institute, the Guy Harvey Institute, and laboratories for advanced research like fish biology and coral geology. The smallest yet busiest building is called the Mellon building. This houses the wet lab classroom, which holds the fish, coral, and invertebrate collections. The center is so close to the ocean that they go out into the field and study very often. They can study the deep-sea because they have access to it in minutes. From this easy access they can gather and research specimens from the ocean. With actual specimens and artifacts the students learn much more from their field of study. They rely on these things to discover and explore the ocean’s elements and all the variety of different life forms. This is a great way of learning because most people learn from hands on experiences and this is not only hands on, but also out in the environment where the specimen came from.

The people were all very friendly and I had the chance to interview Melissa Dore, who is the Departmental Administrator of the center. She was very informative and provided me with so much information, about the center, their research, daily tasks, and much more. She took me to a lab classroom to show me what some students are currently working on. They are working on sorting out protists, which look like tiny grains of sand. Protists provide much information, with some new technology they provide the ocean's temperature, salinity and more at the particular time they were obtained. After I was down with the tour, interview, and lab observation I got the chance to see one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen in south Florida. With a view like that I cannot wait to one day study at and be a part of the Oceanographic Center here at Nova.