Offered every other year, the course -- Geosciences 410: Marine Biogeochemistry -- always includes a research project in another location. Past trips have been to Jamaica, the Florida Keys and parts of the Bahamas.
“All semester, we’ve been learning about the ocean’s chemistry, biology and geology in class. To get out in the sun in a beautiful tropical paradise to conduct research was incredible. We could measure salinity and oxygen levels in the water with handheld devices,” said Caitlin Livsey, a second-year student in the geosciences master’s program.
From March 8 to 13, the students collected and analyzed data to explain four of the “great carbonate mysteries of biogeochemistry,” said Kump. They examined why San Salvador’s coral reefs were dying, despite the small population of the island and seemingly little human influence. They also investigated stromatolites, a type of rock that was once found worldwide billions of years ago but is now only found in a few sparse locations, including San Salvador. The last two projects focused on the seemingly spontaneous occurrence of beach rock, large sedimentary masses of stone that form along the beach, and whitings, a calcium carbonate precipitate on the surface of the ocean.
Students took mud cores, conducted chemical readings of land, ocean and water, and snorkeled to count marine life and other substrates along the coral reefs. At night, they used equipment at San Salvador’s lone research facility, Gerace Research Centre, to analyze their findings.
The intensive experience helped students understand the finer points of conducting research, especially after last-minute changes to travel plans forced them into a reduced schedule.
“Not everything works out like you’d want it to. It was a real learning experience with how research works overall,” said Liz Andrews, a senior majoring in geosciences. Andrews, who also had the opportunity to study coral reefs through the EMS-sponsored CAUSE course, says this trip helped her cement her career interests in marine science.
“The idea of working in the field is much different than it actually is. It is hot and sweaty and smelly sometimes. It’s good to get experience and really understand what it’s like, and what kinds of things you have to think about that you might not have considered,” said Livsey.
“Being able to go out, research a topic, plan a field study, collect your samples and synthesize a report on them is a valuable skillset, regardless of what field you go into,” said Perry Oddo, a graduate student in geosciences.
Helping the local community understand and appreciate coral reefs
One day of the trip was spent teaching 48 children in fourth, fifth and sixth grade about the benefits of coral reefs.
“When I talked to alumni who completed the course years ago, the thing they always remember most is working with children,” said Kump, who always adds a service-learning component to the itinerary. “I want our students to see what’s going on behind the scenes. Working with the local community shows our students the day-to-day lives of the locals, and it gives our students a chance to get to know them and make friendships.”
The experience started with Penn State students sharing about threats to coral reefs, how to combat those threats and why scientists visit San Salvador to study its reefs. Afterward, students led the children through an artistic mural activity, designed to reinforce the information.
“Going down, we had expected that the children wouldn’t know much about coral reefs, but I was surprised to learn that quite a few did know,” said Nate Meier, a senior majoring in geosciences. “It gave us a sense that things are changing, and that the children are being taught more in environmental preservation, which wasn’t the case before.”
For some students, the most rewarding aspect of the experience was realizing the similarities that cut across cultures.
“We talked about TV shows they liked, and subjects they studied in schools, and I was familiar with them. It was really surprising. The biggest difference between us and the children was just that we knew more about the science of the coral reefs, so it was good to be able to share more about that,” said Andrews.
The students are compiling the results of their research and are going to be making final reports toward the end of the spring semester.
“My biggest takeaway from the trip is that there’s so much to research in the world,” said Livsey. “It’s a relatively small island and it has its own research center, yet there’s still so much we don’t know about it. There are places in the world we’ve barely begun to research. It just makes you realize we have so much more to learn about the world.”