"Students should know the organisms that live where they live, and we live in a beautiful place," says Dr. Jameson Chace, associate professor in the Department of Biology and Biomedical Sciences and coordinator of the environmental studies program.
Chace puts theory into practice by taking his General Biology students to Gooseneck Cove in Newport, giving them waders and boots, and having them survey all of the biological diversity in the area over a three-hour period. "The other thing we are trying to do is connect the students in General Biology to a larger research project that we're involved with, which is looking at the effects of climate change on coastal marine ecosystems," he says.
"It's nice that we have resources like this so we can go out exploring and it's nice to have a hands-on experience that you don't get everywhere," Kelsey Stafstrom '14 says.