All posts by admin

Daily Update

Daily Update by Dana April 16, 2012

After only one week of posts from Mac (who is now out on Kayak expedition!) we will be hearing from a new blogger for the next ten day cycle. Welcome Dana Colihan as she voices the Island School student experience to you, until Mac returns for another round.

Dana: After the Ride for Hope on Saturday, we got back to campus and for a night activity went to the inner loop for a game of capture-the-flag. It was pretty intense. Odd numbers in the circle were black, even numbers white. (The black team is better). I spent most of the time in the woods. I had some good bonding time with nature and the dirt. Everyone had a really fun time, but was pretty tired by the end of the day.

[slideshow]

This weekend we also found out what our kayak rotation lists were. Everyone had been pestering the faculty for the past week, but they hadn’t let anything slip. Continue reading →

Daily Update, Uncategorized

Daily Updates by Mac McDonald

Starting with his Run-Swim run down Monday, for the last week, Mac McDonald has been our new blogger. Enjoy his insights into a new weekly ritual: Water Polo Wednesday. Also, Friday was an extra long morning exercise so our apologies for only three updates this week. Look for more Monday as we mark the transition into the Kayak Rotations period of the semester journey.

Mac: The past few days have been busy on campus. Last night our Eleutheros was due. This week’s Eleutheros included the challenging combination of Literature and Human Ecology classes. The prompts, crafted by each individual classes, included asking about what it meant to be married to one’s hart, a question of awareness, and to talk about the affect of undustry vs. nature. Due on Friday, is our Oral Video Project for Histories, which is the videos we took from our Settlement Days. Included in this Histories project is a reflective essay. In this essay, we are to talk about our own bias, perspectives, and positionality while interviewing our own settlement day families. This will be a challenging and reflective piece to write considering the many varying experiences each settlement group had.

[slideshow]

Yesterday was weekly Water Polo Wednesday. Every Wednesday during Exploration time, we have a water polo game. Continue reading →

Daily Update

Daily Update April 10, 2012

Yesterday afternoon, students received their midterm grades and had 10min meetings with each of their teachers to talk about their individual strengths and weaknesses. The grades were a progress report, and a good way to find out where you stood. Last night, students started to write their letters home. This uncomfortable process involved most people saying, “Why can’t I just call them?” Our advisors just shook their head and said to keep writing. By the end of our draft we all realized the real purpose of the letter was not only show our parents how we had been doing and our goals for the end of the semester, but to reflect and take ownership of the work we have been doing.

Olympic music filled the air as the sun rose over campus. This morning at 6:30, north side students came out in their sweats and flip-flops and south side students came to circle with their run-swim shoes and bathing suits. South side was eager to do just as well as north did yesterday. Circle ended and the run-swimmers began their warm up jog, Continue reading →

Cape Eleuthera Institute, CEI

RSMAS to Offer Masters Program at CEI Fall 2012

The Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS) at University of Miami has announced its new Coastal Sustainability Science and Practice Track through their Master of Professional Science Program. It will be offered for the first time this fall 2012 at the Cape Eleuthera Institute. We are excited to welcome these Masters students to the CEI campus! This course will equip students with advanced training in the expanding field of sustainability, with a combined focus on the practical aspects of systems management and the theoretical understanding of whole-systems design. The goal of this track is to train future leaders who create solutions for sustainability issues at local and global levels. If you are interested in this program or would like more information, visit the program’s website here.

Daily Update, Uncategorized

Daily Update April 9, 2012

Island School students have had an event filled passed two days. On Saturday night we went to the Rock Sound Homecoming. Homecoming is just a fancy way of saying the settlement wanted to have a festival. Cars lined the street as we pulled into the festivities, and Bahamian rake and scrape music filled the air. We headed towards the food booths, which were selling a multitude of items – conch fritters, crack conch, conch salad, and pizza. A few students tried to impersonate the large man singing, “Pineapple Wine.” We got to meet some of the locals, and had an extremely funny time trying to learn to . Overall, the night was a great adventure with some great entertainment.

[slideshow]

On Sunday, seven students headed to Tarpum Bay for a 3 year old’s birthday party. Our Settlement Day family invited us back for Jake’s birthday with promises of a bouncy castle and food. Continue reading →

Daily Update, research

Daily Update April 6, 2012

3 Comments

Each research group is continuing to make progress in preparation for our group introductions on Saturday. Introductions are short PowerPoint presentations where each project answers the question: Why does our research matter?

Of course being in deep water sharks is super cool. We get to study different shark species using The Medusa – a high-tech video camera designed to dive up to 2000 feet underwater, lent to us by Edith Widder at National Geographic. But what’s even cooler about my research project is how little humans know about what I’m studying!

At home, whenever I was given a research paper or project to do in science class, there was a definite ending point and answer to the project. Continue reading →

Daily Update

Daily Update April 5, 2012

In preparation for my three-hour block of Marine Ecology yesterday afternoon, I made sure I had my mask, snorkel, and fins. I started heading over to the boathouse to arrange my dive gear, when a friend let me know that I wasn’t diving that day. I was going to snorkel in mangroves. Mangroves are a type of tree that live in muddy areas in shallow salt water. At high tide, they flood, and juvenile marine species like conch, checkered pufferfish, blue crabs, and blue chromis swim into the mangrove looking for food and shelter. Mangroves act as a sort of nursery for the baby fish. There is a bounty of algae for the fish to feed on and plenty of protection within the prop roots around the mangrove. Continue reading →

Daily Update

Daily Update April 3, 2012

1 Comment

 Sustainability is a pillar of The Island School. In every class here, we discuss sustainability, how to achieve it, and how to improve the world and make it more sustainable. Although at home, I’ve had many classes on “going green,” I’ve realized that the concept is much more than just turning lights off when you leave the room. It’s about empowering the current generation to use resources and meet their needs while saving enough for future generations.

In Human Ecology on Monday, we started brainstorming ideas of Final Projects. These projects will be about solving problems by creating more ecologically-friendly systems, either on campus or at home. Continue reading →

Eleutheros, Uncategorized

Eleutheros

3 Comments

The Human Ecology, Histories, and Literature Departments have collaborated on a series ongoing personal reflective essays called Eleutheros. Each week students are asked to write a reflective essay that demonstrates their understanding of the themes from their coursework and effectively links these themes to their unique thoughts and experiences.  Enjoy reading these two articulate examples of how our students have deeply and personally engage with essential questions, important to their course of study at The Island School…

Prompt: Why is the sea valuable? Discuss different individual and cultural perspectives on the sea. Consider how your life experiences, as well as your learning in Histories, Literature, and Human Eco have impacted how you understand the value of the world’s oceans.

Mac McDonald:

My paddle dug into the muddy waters of the Mekong Delta, as I maneuvered amongst the floating homes. The children waved from the doorway of their school. Their school pitched in the ripples made by our canoes. The plastic jugs and Styrofoam, keeping the structure afloat, grumbled and moaned. Behind them I could see the desks, world maps, and chalkboard. Underneath the homes lay a world of sustainability. Giant nets filled with fish created the possibility of all this happening by creating an income for the village. Observing this world and perceiving how they utilize the sea through transport, income, religion, and as a base for their home, completely changed my thoughts on the ocean. I was able to realize how diverse the value of the sea truly is and in how many ways it can be manipulated for use. Continue reading →

Deep Creek Middle School

DCMS Community Outreach Project on Lionfish

Deep Creek Middle School student, Yanni Giannakopulous (grade 9) is leading both Island School and DCMS students through a project to educate local fishermen and restaurant owners on Eleuthera about the market for Lionfish. At the conclusion of the project, the students plan to hold an educational outreach event at a local restaurant where they bring together suppliers and consumers to learn more about how to cook the fish and create a market for this invasive species.

In order to prepare for this final event, the students heard a presentation by Nicola Smith from The Bahamas Department of Marine Resources. She shared some of the latest research on the species. The students are also learning all about safe handling of the lionfish, since their spine rays are venomous, from lionfish researcher at CEI and alumna, Skylar Miller (S’03), as well as delicious preparation of the fish from Island School sustainable chef and alumnus Emery Long (F’04), shown in the photos below. During this Community Outreach class, the students were being filmed by ZED, a French documentary film company who are currently on campus. ZED specializes in natural history, science and adventure and has been working on an invasive species documentary featuring lionfish and will be shooting lots of underwater footage with the lionfish research team at CEI.

[slideshow]