Programs Blog

Graham McCarthy and Isa Roth

Today’s wakeup time was 8:00 and after breakfast we started our day with watch meetings. After meeting with our watches and doing our respective chores everyone gathered in Madden for oceanography. In oceanography we did a mock convention creating posters and writing articles supporting different perspectives on ocean acidification. Each person was given a side on the issue in order to simulate a realistic seminar that would’ve been held on an environmental topic.

With a brief snack break we were off to our ocean’s and society classwhere Ben educated us about the transatlantic slave trade and piracy. We focused on one pirate in particular known as Samuel Bellamy, captain of the whydah that carried 4 tons of gold and silver before its tragic demise to a northeastern storm. Captain Bellamy is arguably one of the richest pirates to ever do it, plundering 120 million dollars worth of treasure his nickname “Black Sam” is renowned even to this day. After class we had lunch which was followed by a trip to Surf Drive for our final session of oceanography.

On the beach we used Seine nets, (long nets fastened to wooden dowels which are pulled parallel to the beach in order to collect fish) and recorded the PH and salinity of the water. When class ended the majority of students stayed on the beach during our free time where we swam, listened to music, and made sand castles. Shortly after we arrived back on campus dinner was ready and after everyone ate we all headed up to Madden for exploratory. For our exploratory activity we painted on shells and rocks collected from Surf Drive. Concluding the day with a movie during study hall (we didn’t have too much homework I swear) everyone headed back to the cottages at 9:30 and got ready for bed.

Graham McCarthy and Isa Roth