When Esra Mescioglu learned she was accepted to the Fall 2013 Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program at BIOS, she didn’t know what to expect.  Frankly, she was a little nervous to leave behind her friends and routine at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. Now, more than a year after her internship in Bermuda, she is thankful her nerves didn’t deter her and is flying from one scientific adventure to the next.  Last week Mescioglu is presenting the results of her research project at the Aquatic Sciences meeting of the American Society for Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) in Granada, Spain, and is quick to share how valuable her experience in the BIOS REU program was.

In 1988, at the age of 20, Maia Patterson McGuire took a break from her usual summer job of working at the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum, and Zoo (BAMZ) to accept an internship with BIOS’s Bermuda Program, a move that would change her career trajectory. Through this opportunity, available for Bermudian students, she conducted research with Robbie Smith, now the curator of the Natural History Museum at BAMZ. At the time, he was an adjunct faculty member at BIOS—a position he still holds—in the process of conducting research on coral reef ecology for his doctoral degree.

Growing up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, Danielle Becker’s parents encouraged her and her sister to explore and appreciate the natural world. For many years, her family traveled to visit relatives in Florida over spring break and Becker recalls feeling amazed by the ocean.

Each spring, BIOS is one of more than 350 colleges, universities, medical centers, professional organizations, and research institutions that accepts undergraduate students as part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. For more than 30 years, the REU program has given U.S. students the opportunity to conduct hands-on research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields as part of their undergraduate education.

Since its inception in the 1970s, the Canadian Associates of BIOS (CABIOS) program has provided more than 200 Canadian students and young scientists with financial assistance to pursue marine science and oceanographic research internships, as well as support for hundreds of students to complete academic coursework at BIOS. Founded by Earlston Doe, a former BIOS Life Trustee and Canadian oceanographer born in Bermuda, the CABIOS fund honors the memory of his youngest son Learmont “Leary” Doe.

Each year a handful of Bermudian students are selected to participate in the BIOS Bermuda Program. This program, which began in 1976, offers students aged 18 and older the opportunity to broaden their knowledge of marine and atmospheric sciences by working on a specific project of interest alongside BIOS scientists in both field and laboratory settings.

Small fishes play an important role in the marine food chain, providing food for larger fishes and water birds, but they are also caught for use as bait in both commercial and recreational fisheries. Over the past thirty years, a decline has been noted in some species of baitfish, leading scientists and resource managers to look more closely at the population dynamics of these important fish. However, baitfish tend to congregate in large schools containing multiple species, making it difficult to study individual populations.

One of the most rewarding aspects of running a decades-long education program is following up with former students to learn where their experiences have taken them, both personally and professionally.

After years of collaborating on a variety of education programs, Dalhousie University and BIOS have taken a significant step in formalizing and expanding their partnership: the launch of new opportunities through the Dalhousie-BIOS Experiential Learning Fund. This fund, established in 2011, was designed to strengthen ties between these two leading ocean research institutions and create a continual flow of students from Dalhousie to BIOS. While many Dalhousie students have taken classes or conducted internships at BIOS over the years, there was no formal program supported by the Dalhousie-BIOS Experiential Learning Fund…until now.

Neoprene exposure suits, rapid-fire sampling, and filtering for DNA; according to 2014 BIOS REU student Keeley Rideout, science never sleeps. Find out why in Keeley’s blog!