Hello!

Here is where I get to brag about how I get to spend three months on Nantucket with a small group of amazing, like-minded students and some really fantastic staff…  What an experience it has been thus far, and I anticipate it to only get better and better!  So what have we been doing up until now, one might ask?  Well, a whole lot!  Academically, we are in the last week of our second class, Introduction to Oceanography.  In the class we have been learning a lot about well… the ocean!  It’s been really interesting to look into how the tiniest of creatures have a global role in maintaining the health of our ecosystem.  It’s been really interesting to be able to get our hands dirty in the lab and in the field, too!  The hands on experience definitely strikes a lot more passion from myself and the other students (right, guys?).  Today we went to see Sankaty Lighthouse with our professor, Sarah Oktay.

 

Our classes aside, we are all working on independent studies, as well.  This week is a big one for me, personally.  I am studying bioremediation techniques for cyanobacteria.  Cyanobacteria is a blue-green algae that has a tendency to bloom in abundance during warmer months due to excess nutrients within the water.  There is a pond here on island, called Hummock Pond, that would benefit from the remediation of this algae.  The algae poses health risks to wildlife, pets, and even humans when it is in full-bloom over the warmer months.  This week, I will be receiving my algae cultures in the mail!  Yes, I’m excited about the delivery of algae.  Once I receive the cultures, I will be inducing growth.  I need to grow the algae before I can test ways to get rid of it…

 Socially, we have been spending a lot of time exploring the island and attending social events.  My favorite events have been Trivia Night on Thurdays at Sea Dog, a restaurant about a three minute walk from where we live.  Although every time I play we seem to lose… miserably… it’s still a lot of fun.  My favorite place on the island that I have visited thus far is Brant Point, which luckily is only about a five minute bike ride from where we live!

 

 

This is the end of my blogging for now… Come to Nantucket!  It’s acktually pretty fantastic.  See what I did there?

–Sam! S!