OCEA 80A - Life in the Sea
Winter 2008
**Field trips**

 

We have two field trips scheduled this quarter. Both are optional, but you must attend ONE of them. Extra credit (up to 15 points) will be given for one of the two field trips if you attend both and complete both assignments. Each field trip occurs outside of class time, so you will have to choose the time and day that work with your class schedule.

You will need to give your TA a signed waiver form, found at the end of your lab manual, for EACH field trip that you attend. Please sign the forms, in pen, and return them to your TA.

Field trip #1: Tidepooling at Natural Bridges. We have to schedule tidepooling trips during a spring tide series when we're most likely to have minus tides. This quarter we will be visiting the tidepools on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, February 16-17. I am aware that this is a holiday weekend and some of you may have plans to be out of town; however, we cannot change the schedule of either the tides or the holiday, so if you're not going to be in Santa Cruz this weekend you need to make sure you can attend the other field trip at the end of the quarter.

We will meet at the end of Delaware Avenue, at the Metro bus stop in front of the DeAnza mobile home park. You can bike or carpool down there, and park on Delaware.

Bring with you:

If the weather ends up turning sour that weekend, keep an eye on this web page. If we decide to cancel the field trips, I'll post a notice here by noon on Saturday or Sunday.

This field trip is a lot of fun, and students generally have a good time in the field. Check out these photos from last spring's field trip to Natural Bridges.




Field trip #2: Monterey Bay Aquarium. We are going to the Aquarium on Friday and Saturday, March 14-15. Our entry times at the Aquarium are as follows:

We will be meeting at the Members/Groups entrance on Hovden Way. This entrance is in a sort of alleyway between the old and new Aquarium buildings. We have to go in as a group for everyone to get in for free. If you are late, you may have to pay the entrance fee, so DON'T BE LATE!! I'd allow at least an hour and 15 minutes to drive down to Monterey, find parking, and walk to the Aquarium. The Aquarium's web site has driving and parking information that may be useful.

Please carpool with classmates down to Monterey. The TAs will help you arrange carpools. The fewer cars we take, the less gas we'll use and that's good stewardship of the environment.

Once inside the Aquarium, you can stay as long as you like. If you're in a carpool, make sure everyone in your car knows when and where to meet for the trip back to Santa Cruz. Some really cool daily events are the feeding of the fishes in the million-gallon tank at 11:00 most mornings and feeding the kelp forest tank every afternoon at 4:00. You should try to see one of these. There are also short video presentations in the theatre, and if any MBARI vessels are out on the Bay doing research, you may be able to see what the scientists are doing in real time and ask them questions.

Don't forget to bring your lab exercise with you! You might also want to bring a clipboard so you have something hard to write against. If you're an artist, you might want to bring some drawing supplies.


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