ASU BIOS launches inaugural Spring Semester with Ontario Tech University

“Spending that much time at a research station fully immersed in classes, data collection and projects helped advance my scientific skills and thinking in a way that nothing else could,” said Jeffrey Stevens, OTU and Spring Semester student.

Earlier this year, in a new partnership with Ontario Tech University (OTU), the University Programs team at the ASU Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences hosted 12 students in the first-ever ASU BIOS Spring Semester Program.

Andrew Peters, Director of Education for University Programs at ASU BIOS, alongside Professor Robert Bailey and Professor Greg Crawford at Ontario Tech University were instrumental in making this spring program possible.

“We are extremely pleased with the success of the new program,” said Andrew Peters. “We started planning this with OTU before the COVID pandemic and it was so good to see it finally go ahead. Our University Programs team at ASU BIOS did an amazing job and the students were clearly motivated and highly engaged. We are excited about continuing this partnership in 2027 and beyond.”

Over the course of 10 weeks, students immersed themselves in marine science through creative programming, fieldwork, laboratory research, and data analysis, utilizing Bermuda’s rich ecology as a living classroom.

“The Spring Semester at ASU BIOS was a unique experience from anything else in my education,” said OTU student Jeffrey Stevens. “Spending that much time at a research station fully immersed in classes, data collection and projects helped advance my scientific skills and thinking in a way that nothing else could.”

“The highlights from our course were the field days on the ocean because it is not something we have the ability to do at home in Canada,” said OTU student Brooke Webster. “Going out into the ocean and collecting your own data to then contribute to your own study was unlike anything I’ve ever done before. Spending the afternoons exploring coral reefs, watching whales and being around people of similar passion was life-changing.”

Building on the success of previous programs, the Spring Semester Program consisted of three courses built from the ground up to support this partnership, including revitalized Coral Reef Ecology and Marine Invertebrate Zoology courses, and introducing a new course in Marine Ecology that covers topics in oceanography, biology, and ecology across a range of marine ecosystems.

“We were using the Sargasso Sea and the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) as a case study to explore concepts in ocean circulation, nutrient dynamics and how the physical and chemical links to the biological,” remarked Brett Jameson, postdoctoral researcher at ASU BIOS and course instructor.

Students had the opportunity to see these connections first-hand by participating in an oceanographic research cruise aboard R/V Atlantic Explorer, working alongside an ASU BIOS scientist to take measurements and collect the data that will be used in the BATS study.

“There's nowhere else where you can come for an undergraduate course and take part in the world's longest-standing oceanographic time series,” said Jameson. “I think that’s pretty cool."

Throughout the semester, the OTU cohort moved beyond traditional classroom learning, collecting and analyzing scientific data that contributed directly to active research projects in Bermuda and abroad. All courses were retrofitted to adopt a snorkel-based approach, removing some of the technical and financial challenges of SCUBA diving.

“[By removing the SCUBA component], they've had that extra time to go deeper into the material and work on those integrative skills,” said ASU BIOS assistant teaching professor Stuart Robertson. “We were able to take a bit more of an applied approach, giving them the opportunity to apply what they've learned.”

Alongside traditional lab activities, dissections, fieldwork and identification practice, students conducted a series of biodiversity and coral reef surveys. They also explored the use of photogrammetry, creating models that now aid long-term reef monitoring efforts in Bermuda and inform broader coral bleaching assessments connected to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) research.

This flexible structure created more opportunities for students to develop broader interdisciplinary skills, and touched on topics in policy, science communication, data analysis, and, for the first time in an ASU BIOS course, introduced students to coding in R Studio.

“It is cool because they want to go into so many different things, and the skills they learn have better prepared them for work across fields,” said teaching assistant Jamie Smithson, who created the R workshops.

“Some students wanted to go into conservation, and the field skills have been super useful, but across the board, the coding skills have now prepared them way better for careers in science, and now loads of them have got interviews for different jobs,” Smithson continued.

“It is amazing what can be done in 10 weeks. I think the range of skills that the students have come into contact with takes a year, basically, of undergrad courses to do,” said Brett Jameson. “They gain a very well-rounded technical skill set that spans the field, the lab and the analytics side, everything from design and implementation of a scientific experiment through to the execution and the sampling.”

“I think on first pass, I couldn’t have asked for it to go any better than it has gone,” remarked Robertson. “The students have been a dream in terms of the group that you want for this particular type of experiential learning program. It's fundamentally changed how all of the other courses are going to be run.”

For many students, the experiential learning program transformed both their confidence and career ambitions, while inviting them to connect deeper with Bermuda, marine science, and their communities back home.

Following the success of the inaugural cohort, ASU BIOS faculty aim to continue growing the Spring Semester Program while expanding opportunities for interdisciplinary oceanographic education and international partnerships with upcoming summer courses and fall semester programs.

For more information on future University Programs at ASU BIOS, head to https://bios.asu.edu/education/courses-university-students