Through the generous support of a philanthropic sponsor, two BIOS Bermuda Program alumni are continuing to develop valuable scientific laboratory techniques and research skills outside of the Institute’s annual summer internship program. Jihad Muhammad, 22, and Marcus Rewan, 21, are working as part-time research interns through the BIOS Curriculum Enrichment Program.

BIOS Ocean Academy alumna Emma O’Donnell will take her interest in environmental sustainability a step further this fall at the University of Oxford in England with a Rhodes Scholarship, focusing her graduate work on studies of sustainability, enterprise, and the environment.

When Samia Sarkis dreamed of planting gardens on Bermuda, she didn’t envision blooming flowers for picking or rows of lettuce for eating, but instead vast beds of undersea corals.

Emma O’Donnell, 22, graduated this past spring from Princeton University (U.S.) with a Bachelor of Arts in ecology and evolutionary biology, with high honors. Her undergraduate thesis, “One Fish, Two Fish: Measuring Patterns of Reef Fish Biodiversity in Bermuda Using Environmental DNA Metabarcoding,” was based on research she conducted at BIOS, and it earned her the Princeton Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Prize for Best Thesis in Ecology.

Summer internships for college-aged students were among the educational experiences that were hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. As college campuses around the world shut down, students missed out on opportunities to gain skills in non-classroom settings, network with professionals and mentors, and explore potential career fields.

A new, week-long “Ocean Science Camp” at BIOS will provide an introduction to Bermuda’s marine life while also building a scientific foundation to encourage long-term curiosity about the ocean. Over the course of the week, students will have the opportunity to participate in snorkel training and research-based field trips aboard BIOS vessels to explore mangrove, sea grass, and coral reef environments. In a nod to the collaborative nature of science, students will work as a team on activities and projects that are focused on research being conducted at BIOS.

It’s not every day that you meet a high school student who already has three summers of scientific research, as well as a poster presentation at a professional scientific conference, under his belt. But Luke Stewart isn’t your average student.

Both BIOS and Bermuda College are known for providing outstanding educational opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects for the island’s young people. While the Bermuda College is a degree-granting institution and BIOS is a not-for-profit research and education facility that focuses on training local students in primary, middle, and high school, both organizations have a similar goal: to provide the island’s children and young adults with the knowledge, skills, and experiences required for future success in academics and the workforce.

Each year, around this time, high school students are faced with the often-daunting task of deciding what to do in the upcoming summer months. Volunteer? Study abroad? Work? Intern? While the final decision rests upon many factors, Bermudian students interested in pursuing careers in the ocean or atmospheric sciences have to look no further than the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS). Each summer, as part of its Ocean Academy, BIOS runs two programs for high school students that provide unique opportunities to learn and work at the research station.

This summer, BIOS’s Marine Science Internship program, part of the Institute’s larger Ocean Academy, brought art into its primarily science-focused curriculum. The two-week program is designed to provide students ages 14 to 16 with training and skills development in scientific research and science diving. However, over the last several years, a growing number of educators have started incorporating art into the traditional fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). This new concept is known as STEAM, with the “A” representing “art” in the form of humanities, language arts, dance, drama, visual arts, design, and music.