A boat is a familiar sight in our Gulf waters. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes, each with a purpose or job to do. If you look closely, you might catch the staff (including me) at the University of Southern Mississippi Marine Education Center (MEC) aboard the Miss Peetsy B with a group of students.
Vessel-based Education programs (VBE) provide students with the opportunity to gain a deeper connection with the Mississippi Sound and the creatures that call it home. Many of these students are from the local area and have never had a chance to experience a boat day. These students inspired the question “What impact does vessel-based education have on students?” With our partners at Dauphin Island Sea Lab Discovery Hall Program (DHP) and Mobile County Public School’s Environmental Studies Center (ESC), we are making it possible to collect data to answer our questions about vessels and student learning.
Part of the initial development of this project, which will be part of my dissertation, was to participate in a VBE program at our partner institutions and see how they structured their experience. The staff at DHP hosted a cruise aboard the R/V Alabama Discovery where they hosted a group of fifth-graders. The cruise covered everything from local Island history, sampling, to a dive into the amazing biodiversity of the waters surrounding Dauphin Island. It was a peek at how they deployed the same sampling techniques but aboard a different vessel.
We pulled a trawl and collected a variety of species, some we had in common, and a few were unique to Dauphin Island. DHP educators often experience excited participants of the feathered variety. We had several pelicans decide to snack on the sample straight from the sorting table. Using the information gathered from this trip, an instrument to measure the impact of VBE on students was developed.
Members of the MASGC Education Team met at Dauphin Island to plan a unified approach to collecting data from our VBE programs. This was an opportunity to learn more about the challenges that educators face in the field and work together to come up with a plan for success. We are excited to start this data collection process in the spring of 2024.
We pulled a trawl and collected a variety of species, some we had in common, and a few were unique to Dauphin Island. DHP educators often experience excited participants of the feathered variety. We had several pelicans decide to snack on the sample straight from the sorting table. Using the information gathered from this trip, an instrument to measure the impact of VBE on students was developed.
Members of the MASGC Education Team met at Dauphin Island to plan a unified approach to collecting data from our VBE programs. This was an opportunity to learn more about the challenges that educators face in the field and work together to come up with a plan for success. We are excited to start this data collection process in the spring of 2024.
Meet the author
Samantha Capers
USM Marine Education Center Associate Director
Samantha Capers is a member of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium Engagement and Education Team and serves as the assistant director of The University of Southern Mississippi Marine... Read more
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