The University of Maine's marine lab, the Darling Marine Center, is offering the following undergraduate and graduate courses this summer:
Life Histories & Functional Morphology of Commercially Important Marine Invertebrates of Maine, May 11-27 Estuarine Oceanography, May 11-27 MATLAB for Marine Sciences, May 31 - June 10 Natural Science Illustration, June 13-17 Calibration and Validation for Ocean Color Remote Sensing, July 11-29 For course descriptions and additional detail see below or go to the Darling Marine Center website (classes and workshops) http://www.dmc.maine.edu/coursesUM.html May-term and summer courses incur regular UMaine tuition and fees. UMaine students can register directly through MaineStreet http://www.umaine.edu/mainestreet. Non-UMaine students, please register through the Office of Continuing and Distance Education, 1- 877-947-4357, or http://www.umaine.edu/summeruniversity. Life Histories and Functional Morphology of Commercially Important Marine Invertebrates of Maine May 11-27 (alternates days with Estuarine Oceanography course below) Instructor: Dr. Kevin Eckelbarger Course Description: Students will explore the reproductive biology, life histories, and functional morphology (internal and external anatomy) of selected coastal Maine marine invertebrates of commercial importance and special ecological significance. Specimens collected during field trips will be dissected in the lab with an emphasis on learning the comparative morphology of reproductive, digestive, and nervous systems. Where possible, the eggs of sexually mature animals will be fertilized in the lab to observe fertilization and early embryonic cleavage and plankton collections will examine their larvae. Students will learn the basic tissue and organ structure of selected animals using histological techniques (preservation, dehydration, tissue sectioning with a microtome, mounting and staining microscope slides) as well as preparing whole mounts of selected anatomical features (e.g. sponge spicules, cnidarian stinging cells, nemertean stylets, mollusc radulae, crustacean mouth parts, echinoderm pedicellaria etc.). Animals to be studied will include sponges, jellyfish, sandworms, blood worms, lobsters, crabs, shrimp, oysters, scallops, mussels, starfish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and tunicates. Guest lectures will be provided by representatives from industry on the importance of commercially important species. 3 credits. Estuarine Oceanography May 11-27 (alternates days with Life Histories/Functional Morphology course above) Instructor: Dr. Larry Mayer Course Description: Estuaries are mixing zones between rivers and the ocean. We will examine how river flow, tidal mixing and geomorphology affect mixing and how the mixing process affects various components of estuaries. Fieldwork in mid-coast Maine estuaries will include hydrographic surveys coupled to various sampling, field sensor, and laboratory approaches to provide views of physical, biological, chemical, and sedimentary responses to mixing patterns. Students will learn how dissolved and living and dead particles move through these environments, and how sessile organisms respond to hydrography. We will cover planktonic and benthic ecosystems, with applications to processes such as aquaculture, eutrophication and contaminant dispersal. The course will include the use of models and various forms of data analysis. The fieldwork will be structured by team-oriented student projects. 3 credits. MATLAB for Marine Scientists May 31-June 10 Instructor: Dr. Damian C. Brady Course Description: Marine science is an increasingly technical field and Matrix Laboratory (MATLAB) is the language of technical computing. Students will learn the basics of computer programming in MATLAB: pre and post processing environmental data (I/O), vectorizing code, conditional loops, and visualization. Students will learn how MATLAB interacts with external databases and other programming languages as well as how to produce scientific figures that effectively highlight and communicate their results. However, there is no better way to learn a computing language than to work on an application that interests the student. The course will consist of lectures and individual projects wherein students work with real data either collected by the student or downloaded from a field of their own interest (e.g. OBIS SEAMAP for marine mammals or CIMS for estuarine oceanography) to pre-process, analyze, and visualize their data. Advanced mathematical skills are not necessary. Specifically, students will learn: 1) Variable creation, 2) Saving, reading and loading data, 3) Matrix manipulation and operations, 4) The use of built-in functions, 5) Creating m-files and personal functions, 6) The use of for, while and if loops, 7) Plotting and visualization techniques, 8) Image analysis and manipulation, 9) Movie generation, 10) Simple modeling techniques. 2 credits. Required Text: Mastering Matlab 7 (Duane Hanselman and Bruce Littlefield) Natural Science Illustration June 13-17 Instructor: David Wheeler Course Description: A 5-day illustration course for students in natural sciences, art, anthropology and archaeology. Natural Science Illustration will introduce students to the close observation, analysis and illustration of natural objects and species. Students will be tutored in the use of pencils, technical drawing pens, water color painting, scratchboard, and carbon dust on acetate. They will learn techniques for drawing to scale, and creating the illusion of three-dimensionality with use of calipers, contouring gauges, micrometers, and proportional dividers. No prior art training required. 2 credits.
