2011

Today was another great day of class. At the beginning, we went over a few articles concerning sponges. Then we took notes on invertebrates, but only went over a general view of the class because there is so much information regarding the spinless class on animals. After a quick break, we dissected a starfish and a squid. This was...

Today we started our second and final week of the in-class portion of marine biology, with everyone overflowing with excitement for the British Virgin Islands trip. However, what was in store for us quelled our excitement just a little, as we went hands on and dissected star fishes and squid, identifying their main external and internal anatomy. All of...

Today was filled with information and also excitement because we did a dissection of a starfish and a squid! We started out though discussing two articles with one of them being the one my partner and I discussed. The first talked about butterflyfish and the effect they have on coral loss, and the second article talked about the lack...

Today we did two main things. We started with the articles that were presented by other classmates. The first paper was on Butterflyfish and their effect on coral. This paper, while producing results, didn't seem to have much significance in how their research helps solve the problem or what it means. The second article was very interesting, highlighting the...

Take a moment and imagine what life would be like if you didn't have a backbone. Think of all the things you couldn't do. Imagine never being able to sit up straight, lift a heavy object, or have a definite body shape. That's what today was about, invertebrates. This group of animals makes up over 99% of the animal kingdom,...

Today began listening to Kells and Alec talk about the coral consumption by butterfly fish. That didn't interest me very much, and, as doc Gruninger pointed out, the article had no purpose. The next presentation, by Paul and nick, concerned mollusks, and in my opinion was much more interesting. They discussed the purpose of mollusks and estimates on the...

To begin this weeks class we had different groups present different articles regarding marine life. The first article was about butterfly fish and their mass consumption of coral. The second article was about the massive decline of mollusks. Both of these readings really put into perspective the impacts that one small thing can have on the entire marine ecosystem....

Today in class we first went over two articles. One of the articles was mine and Kells's. It was about butterflyfish consumption of coral. The other article was Paul and Nick T.'s. Theirs was about non-marine mollusks. We then proceeded to the lab where we dissected the sea-star and the squid. This helped us learn about the anatomies of...

So today is the first day of the second week of the Marine Bio course! We dissected a starfish and a squid while discussing how they were classified, how they were structured, and how they behaved. What I found interesting was that even though they lacke brains, animals such as seastars and jellyfish still possess nerve nets that help...