Our day began with a 1st year seminar on Chemical and Physical Characteristics of the Marine Environment and continued as half of our groups went snorkeling at a local quarry. The quarry is an interesting environment because water feeds into it from the Gulf so there is movement of water but we don’t experience waves like we do in open water. This location provides for two environments of study, man made walls and mangroves. We were able to see algae, sea squirts, anemones, and fish, to name a few. The other half of our groups went to the rocky coast and collected specimens for further study back at the Goshen College facility. We have a license for collection and we maintain tanks for keeping our new friends healthy. We do release each specimen back to the location we found it to be sure to not harm the animals.Later in the day we had seminars on water quality as well as learning how to classify 15 different local algae specimens that Mrs. Weaver collected earlier this morning.

The 2nd year students worked as facilitators for the seminars today and then had their own excursion out to a location called the bight. The art students worked out by the water for the day, and our families spent time at the pool and finding their own adventures around town.

Dinner was delicious and prepared by Christy Smith and our eating unit hosts. We eat well on this trip! The evening will end with students having the choice to continue snorkeling, kayaking, swimming, or working on their assignments. We have a wonderful group again this year and it is great to see new friendships forming between the four schools.