Chris Meyer, Amanda Windsor, Nancy Knowlton, Francesca Leasi, Jon Geller, and I are all on our way to Bali, Indonesia right now by different routes. When we get there, we are going to meet our students, a mix of Indonesians and US-based undergrads in Pemuteran in northwest Bali, where they are finishing up a course in marine ecology. When we get there, we will set about constrcuting our mobile marine station in a villa that we are renting. (As an aside, Bali really needs a marine station!) so that we can begin our course in Marine Biodiversity Inventory Methods. This is all part of a summer long USAID-funded course run by our intrepid leader Paul Barber.
Bali 2012 MBIM class in Pemuteran, Bali
Here are the actual goals of our course: Students will
- develop an understanding of the importance of documenting marine biodiversity
- be exposed to a variety of questions that can be addressed through documenting marine biodiversity
- be exposed to the challenges of marine biodiversity, particularly its magnitude and breadth
- be challenged to look at marine biodiversity from a variety of perspectives and with varying levels of resolution
- develop an understanding of the importance of standardized sampling
- learn how to preserve samples and associated meta-data to enhance their value for future generations of scientists
- be exposed to the process of taxonomic identification, understand the difference between morphosorting/field identifications and more formal identifications
- develop an understanding and appreciation of the importance and use of museums / collections
- develop a creative perspective to address biodiversity questions with novel genomic technologies
- be able to formulate testable hypotheses using approaches that employ biodiversity metrics
- be able to ask and answer your own questions employing expertise and tools available
Class picture 2012, MBIM course, Pemuteran, Bali
i love bali
Posted by: Ngurah Satya | 03 May 2016 at 02:41 AM