Blog

Name: Calissa Anderson
School: Franklin College/Switzerland
Program: Marine Resource Management Studies, Turks and Caicos

Now that we have been on the island for over two weeks we have certainly made The SFS Center for Marine Resource Studies our new home. Laundry is strewn over the lines, flip flops are always missing, and students, staff, and community members have continued to form close relationships.

Throughout the day on Wednesday, groups of students went to the local schools to help in a variety of classes. Some students worked with eleventh graders in a science class while others chased fifth graders around the play yard. Most of us reflected on the difference of culture that we observed. Some were shocked when they ended up being the temporary teacher for a kindergarten class and others were caught off guard by the methods of discipline. However, everyone appeared to be excited about this learning opportunity and the new friends we have made.

This was also an important week for our resource management course. We had two days of lionfish field exercises where small groups went to three different locations and laid out a fifty meter transect. The groups snorkeled along the transect looking for lionfish, an invasive species here on South Caicos. The results were not as exciting as we all hoped, after all only two lionfish were seen, yet it was a good way to get familiar with the method of collecting data.