We're going to Mako it to the Bahamas!

We had a difficult start to our day today, anxiously waiting and preparing for our first test of the intensive! As we attempted studied marine mammals and invertebrates, sperm whales and squid, we questioned if the amount of learning and memorization was worth a trip to the beautiful Bahamas! Turns out, we all survived and it really wasn't too bad (definitely worthwhile considering we can soon experience what our test was on)! We even got a mint to get us through the test, and some awesome stickers on our returned tests!

After a relaxing break, we continued on with the marine chapters! Thankfully, everyone returned to class BY 10:05 so we did NOT have to do push-ups this morning! The rest of the day's agenda went a little like this: Sharks, sharks, and more sharks!

Just a nice school of sharks

But really, we began our shark filled day with a JAWsome DyKnow. While skates and rays were briefly mentioned, sharks were the focus of the session. All of this new information we learned about sharks, like how petting a shark towards the tail feels smooth and petting it towards the head it feels like sandpaper, would be put to test later in the day! A few other interesting things we learned from this DyKnow was that sharks control their buoyancy through their liver, sharks counter-shade to camouflage themselves, and they can have babies in three different ways: Oviparous (eggs laid outside the shark), ovoviviparous (eggs laid inside the shark), and viviparous (live birth). With all this new knowledge on sharks, we were even more excited to dissect some, which would be our next activity. We finished off the session with some common misconceptions on sharks, specifically on sharks tendency to attack humans. Only 50-70 people worldwide are attacked by sharks each year, yet even those are typically due to people resembling a seal or swimming during dawn and dusk, their feed time. After this reassuring fact, we were off to lunch!

After gearing up in proper sanitary gear, which was really just gloves, we jumped right into examining the sharks. Exploring the exterior of the shark, pointing out the anterior and posterior dorsal, the five gills, its counter-shading, and all the other characteristics we had previously learned about. We then began cutting it open. We saw their spleen, which manages their red blood cells, their liver, which stores energy, and all the other organs of the shark. Although it was pretty gross, certainly nowhere near as bad as the slimy, smelly squid we dissected Monday. We even got to see what the sharks ate before they died! However, it was clear only one was hungry, because while one shark had a stomach full of fish bones, the others was empty.

Have you ever seen the inside of a shark?

Yet the empty-stomached shark had something even better inside - babies! That’s right, the female shark we were dissecting was pregnant, with what we soon discovered were five little sharks! Each shark was attached to an egg, and it was so cool watching what was basically a shark C-section occur right in front of our eyes!

Josh (left) and Ander (right) - proud parents hold their newly born dogfish

After a brief photo shoot with the little guys, we had a speedy clean up to assure we would have plenty of time to watch Joy - our favorite celebrity - dissect a great white shark!

Joy (far right) and her team beside the Great White

It was really cool to see how our dissection compared to hers, yet hers was clearly on a much grander scale. It was also Joy's first time dissecting a shark, so it was exciting to compare our initial reactions to hers. In addition to the dissection, the movie compared the Great White Sharks bite to a crocodiles, which was surprisingly much weaker than the crocodiles. Joy even dove down in a cage to see the sharks up close, which was a little scary considering the openings of the cage seemed to be big enough to fit the shark, or at least the mouth. 

Would you get in the cage?

However, the movie also made sure to clear up the misconceptions of sharks, mentioning how they truly are just misunderstood! Overall, despite the clear tiredness due to the lack of sleep from studying for the test, it was a pretty exciting day. We can't wait to swim up close with the sharks in just a couple of days

That’s all for now,

Sara and Jillian 

Whale hello there!

Today we embarked on another great adventure- the second day of the Marine Science intensive! To kick-start our day, we got our blood flowing with some pushups to pay off tardiness (also a preview of what will happen when we are late at the Island School). After this, we jumped straight into a rousing session of DyKnow where we reviewed some old biology topics, including information about all the heat energy we had just released during our morning exercise.  

After we had covered the basic topics of biology, we moved on to the topic of Marine Mammals (with an emphasis on whales). We mainly discussed two different types of whales - baleen, and toothed - and the characteristics of each. One fact that many of us found amusing is that whales once had tiny little legs - about the size of a human toddler’s. The image of a ginormous sperm whale with two puny little feet flopping around in the back was hard to imagine while keeping a straight face.

A whale with legs would certainly be an odd sight to see

 After evolving over the course of a few millions of years, however, these land-based mammals slowly lost their hind legs and gave up their terrestrial lives for aquatic ones. Today, we can still see remnants of those odd ancestors of modern day whales as certain vestigial bones in the skeleton of the whales. Many animals have vestigial structures. We humans, for example, have tailbones and nictitating membranes (the membranes adjacent to our tear ducts at the inner corners of our eyes) which are remnants of once necessary structures that evolution has since done away with.

We also learned about a few other marine mammals, such as sea lions, elephant seals, and sea otters. Many of these animals exhibit diverse societal behavior and different models of dominance. The elephant seal population, for example, seem to have their own sort of government (stretching the definition of that word a bit). A single alpha male will claim dominance over a harem, a group of female elephant seals, and maintain the sole right to mate with every single one. In this dictatorial regime, females are not permitted to mate with other males without fear of punishment. Furthermore, subordinate male seals can only gain alpha status through combat, in which case his status of alpha male is transferred to the victor. Otherwise, beta male seals have to be content with remaining abstinent for life. 

There can only be ONE alpha

Another fun fact about marine mammals is that, in sea lion populations, orphaned babies are often adopted by a lion who has not had a chance to become a mother, or has lost one of her own pups. Aw!

After our scintillating round of DyKnow lectures, we watched a documentary featuring the class superstar, Joy Reidenberg, who took us along on her journey of sperm whale dissection.  The documentary gave us an overview of the behavioral patterns and anatomy of the sperm whale. Interestingly, many parts of the sperm whale have adapted to suit its needs perfectly (thanks evolution!). For example, we learned that the spermaceti (the wax and oil sac at the top of the whale head, also the main reason they are hunted), is able to be warmed and cooled at willed to change the density of the whale, giving it the ability to dive extremely deep and float up again. Sperm whales also have special ribcages that expand and contract again and again, allowing them to change the volume in their lungs as they dive deeper. Their blowholes function as both a tool for breathing, and for producing loud clicks for echolocation. Though all this information was interesting, the presentation was... messy. We watched as Joy slashed through the thick blubber to wrench out the whale’s intestines (among other organs). We also saw the team cut out its heart and hold it in their arms. Was it repulsive? Yes! Was it interesting? Also yes! In conclusion, it was a fun time.

Joy and The Whale

On the topic of fun, we were shown a video where city officials try and move a beached sperm whale back into the ocean…with dynamite. Through this video, we discovered that whales have suicidal tendencies in addition to having a cute habit of exploding after death (with or without dynamite).

Following lunch, we returned to DyKnow and covered marine invertebrates. Most are squishy, soft-bodied animals who often create or steal a hard outer shell for protection. These include sea stars, crabs, anemones, and a host of other interesting and bizarre creatures. Mrs. Becker showed us a bunch of invertebrate examples, and we got to pass around cool shells, corals, and sea stars during the lecture. We were also taught that many of the little creatures we will encounter in the Bahamas are NOT our friends, and anemones are not a friendly as they looked in “Finding Nemo”! We also learned that sea sponges are a real thing, and are not, in fact, called SpongeBob, but instead have the phylum “Porifera” Overall, many “Finding Nemo” and “SpongeBob” references were made, and we came out with one big takeaway: Don’t touch random stuff!

This little guy packs a big punch

 These Polychaetes are annotated in our DyKnow slides with the phrase “DO NOT TOUCH”. When you touch this worm you will instantly get injected with little spikes that will send a fire-like feeling through the affected area.

To end our day, we acted out a conference of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). With whale hunting being an extremely profitable business, quite a few whale species entered the 21^st century on the endangered list. To counter this rapid decrease in whale populations, the IWC was created and was supported by many countries to put in place a ban against all whaling. Our conference was to educate us on the process and the possible reasons why some countries may not want a complete ban. Since the ban is technically already in place, the conference’s decision was to determine whether the IWC should lift the ban or keep it. In the end, the group decided with a tally of four to three favoring lifting the ban due to many traditions depending on whaling along with the economic stability that the industries could provide. 

Greenpeace standing up for the rights of whales!

We WHALE see you later,

Leigh and William 

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! No, not the holiday season. No, not college acceptances. It's time to go to Eleuthera! We started off class with a not-so-casual reminder from Ms. Samson about the approaching packing deadline, a reminder which got every member of the class shaking with excitement for the upcoming stay in paradise.

We will remember all these things, we swear... 

With a classic DyKnow session we snapped back into education mode and were ready for action. Ms. Becker explained to us the difference between physiology and anatomy and started breaking down the different evolutionary complexities which gave us the animals we have today. After today’s class, I’m sure we all can imagine how cool it would be to have gills instead of lungs because of how much more efficient they are at getting oxygen from the surroundings... also you could live underwater!

Now knowing how the animals worked, we got to work cutting them up. We started with dissecting a squid but were promised a shark in the next few days. It was a pretty “dramatic” scent, but after breathing through our mouths for a while, getting on with the squid got a lot more manageable. We located the hearts and lungs with no sweat, but the ink gland (which many of us thought was an undigested fish) was where the fun really kicked in. Below is an example of the artistry reached when two science/math lovers apply themselves in the creative arts.

Check out this squid we dissected today! We can't wait to dissect again!

During the last block we were surprised by a guest speaker! Unfortunately it was not Bill Nye the Science Guy or Joy from the Giant Squid documentary, but instead we got to hear the wise words of wisdom from the spectacular Ms. Bischoff. She reassured us about the amazing experience that we are about to embark on, but also discussed the standard that we must hold ourselves at during the trip. Last but not least, she reminded us that while we are in the Bahamas there will be no internet connection which means college stress free for fourteen days!

Following that lighthearted announcement, we got to cracking on learning the Bahamian national anthem. Though the original music video demonstrations were a bit intimidating, when it came time to perform we really shined on our rendition of “March on Bahamaland”. Ms. Becker showed us the ropes, and after a quick repeat after me run through the class could almost smell the easterlies blowing.

Signing off,
Annie and Daniel

Welcome!

Greetings,
As the fall intensive approaches, we have our eyes set on our trip to the Bahamas! On Monday, November 27th, our course officially begins. We depart for the Bahamas on Monday, December 4th and we will return on Friday, December 15th. Each day of the intensive, both in Gates Mills and on Eleuthera, students will post updates on this blog. Check back here and read about our adventures!
Mr. Cawley & Ms. Samson