Weeks 5 & 6

As we approach the halfway point in the program, things are only getting better. In history, presentations on pre-Columbian times were made. For physical evidence of what we had learned, we took a morning field trip to Paige Creek, a location where evidence of a Lucayan Indian settlement has been found. Although Floyd left a mark on the site, we still were able to see why this site was ideal for a Lucayan community. Although no artifacts were found, examples of various animals from the area were discovered.

SCUBA dives have just started, as we have all moved on to the open water portion of our SCUBA certification. Our first open water dive was made to a man made trench, where the students got to dive off a 'wall' and see many examples of the marine life we are studying in our slide shows and science course. The first actual boat dive took place this past Wednesday, our first dive to an actual reef. On our dive we practiced several skills that we learned in the confined water portion of our certification, as well as seeing amazing coral formations and beautiful fish. As we have moved thoroughly and quickly through our certification process, we hope to be certified by the end of next week.

The kids from local schools have been frequent visitors to our campus, as we are assisting in their education of marine biology. We were excited to have visitors to our home and the kids became quickly attached to their assigned student leaders. We plan on forming close relationships with our kids from the local schools. It is a treat to see the island children take a look at their home environment in a completely new way. Today, for example, we took them on a beach walk, and examined certain marine organisms that we found along the beach. Also, in an attempt to raise their awareness about the importance of a clean environment, we picked up garbage that we found along the beach. We hope that they will learn to become more responsible in taking care of their home environment, to preserve its pristine beauty for future generations.

Another part of Island School life that has been moving along remarkably well, are the landscape improvements we have been making. Several palms and other trees and shrubs have been transferred from surrounding forests on to campus, and the finishing touches will be put on to the second story of the boys dormitory. It is nice to see how much the campus has improved during the short amount of time we have been here, and we look forward to continue to improve our campus as the semester progresses.

This segment of the Island School Web page was brought to you by Tony's Advisory-- Jon Cotton, Daria Wisneski, Alyssa Maloney, and Dro

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for further updates :-)