Eleutheros, Uncategorized

Eleutheros

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:  What is your worldview, how did it come to be, and has it been changed or challenged since you arrived at The Island School? 

by Lucy Cram:

I sit on the girl’s dorm deck looking out at the stars that shine more numerous and brightly than at home orNew Jersey, and the soft breeze drifts across my face and legs and I feel peaceful. The twinkling specks in the distance take me back to a spring morning ten years ago, when my father woke me up atfour a.m.to watch a meteor shower. I remember half sleepwalking to our dock, all the while wishing I were back in bed; however, as soon as I saw the shooting stars speed by me in such numbers, I was awake and happy. My dad has always tried to pass his love for the little things in nature along to me. Continue reading →

Daily Update

Daily Update March 27, 2012

Monday was a day full of adventure as I made one of my best memories at The Island School. After a morning of Math, Human Ecology, and Marine Ecology classes, we set off to Deep Creek Middle School for Community Outreach. My project, called “Beach Access: Know Your Rights,” started by one of the Deep Creek students, is a project to stop the blocking of public beaches by major hotels and private estates, who are breaking the law by putting up road blocks and other barriers preventing Bahamians to come onto their beaches. My friend Annie, another Island School student, and my DCMS buddy Bronthaye and I are working together to create a presentation to give to South Eleuthera mission in order to gain support behind this project. It is truly amazing to say that I am at work making a difference in the community. I’m so excited for next Monday! Continue reading →

Alumni, Alumni Spotlight

Alumni Spotlight: Lee Taylor (F’99)

Lee Taylor (F’99), a student at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, is the captain of a Dartmouth team that won the regional finals in Boston for the energy track of the Hult Global Case Challenge. This challenge is a business model/consulting competition intended to improve the success of solar power and lighting technologies in Africa. He and the rest of his team are presenting at the international finals in New York in April. For more information about the Dartmouth team and the Hult Global Case Challenge, you can check out the press release here. Congratulations to Lee and the rest of his team!

CEI

Carleton University Research at CEI

Researchers from Carleton University (Cooke Lab) was at CEI last week studying flats ecology. The team is determining whether radio tags can be used to track the movements of checkered puffers in shallow mangrove habitats. Radio tags normally are used only in freshwater because signals are attenuated by sea water. However, the researchers have modified the tags such that the antenna points vertically and breaks the water surface as puffers swim about in tidal creeks. In addition, the researchers placed tri-axial accelerometer loggers on bonefish in McKinney Creek at CEI. The loggers record information on swimming (e.g., tail beats) and feeding (e.g., tilting as they dip their heads to feed) activity. This is the first time that such loggers have been used on bonefish and will provide information that will serve as the basis for a bonefish bioenergetics model. The same loggers were also placed on some fish in Kemps Creek to evaluate the effects of different handling techniques on post-release behaviour. The Carleton team includes Jake Brownscombe, Felicia St. Louis, Charles Hatry, Jason Thiem, and Dr. Steven Cooke.

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Daily Update

March 26, 2012 – Daily Updates by Tai

 “Get out and do something.”  That is something my parents have made sure I never forget. No matter what everybody else is doing, stretch beyond it. Be stronger. Be different. Do things nobody else around you ever thought they could. I think one of the major points of my worldview is that people like to stay in a very cozy comfort zone, and those who push out of that restricting bubble are the ones who make a difference in the world.

These first lines of Tai Massimilian’s Eleutheros essay this week caught our attention. Her style, reflection and distinct voice were just what we need in a Daily Update writer. So, with culmination of the first two week rotation, saying goodbye to Eric Witte and his excellent work, we decided to invite Tai to take over as student blogger for the next rotation. Please enjoy her personal insights and daily observations as blog author for the next two week, starting with today…

Daily Update: This weekend the Island School students were fully engaged in Bahamian culture. Saturday morning, after a long 6 mile run for the runners and 1 mile swim for the swimmers, we left in vans to be dropped off in different settlements with Bahamian families. I had the privilege of traveling to Tarpum Bay, Eleuthera for what I thought was to be a day of sitting in a house conducting interviews. But, as the Island School usually goes, I was pushed out of my comfort zone and pleasantly surprised. Continue reading →

Uncategorized

Lucky’s First 8-day Kayak Trip

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It all started on a stormy morning in September 2010.  As the students of K3 and I busily made our final preparations on Girls Dorm Beach, Lucky collapsed into the sand with a sigh–a forlorn puppy.  She knew the drill well and had been perfecting her act for several semesters, hoping that somehow she could either convince us to take her along or, at the very least, to prevent our departure.  But this was not going to be her semester.  We paddled into the 20 knot winds despite her dejected gaze pulling on our heartstrings. Continue reading →

Daily Update

Daily Update March 23, 2012

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Yesterday evening, just before dorm check-in, one of my good friends had the misfortune of knocking a pipe out of place.  At once, the water started to erupt, so he ran to the dorm for help.  At the dorm we heard yells of “FELIX, FELIX, HELP! HELP! There’s water everywhere!”  So Felix, our literature teacher, leapt up and ran to where my friend guided him.  When it became clear that Felix needed more help, the rest of the boys’ dorm came flooding out and following my friend to the pipe.  At first, we caught the water with buckets and quickly formed a chain to pass the buckets and dump them back into the cistern.  This was not as effective as it needed to be though, so Brandon stuffed his hand down the pipe to stop its flow.  At that moment, Felix shouted that we needed to shut off the water pump.  We shut off the pump, and our problem was solved, but what I was fascinated by how quickly we assessed the situation and began to work together in a productive manner.  Continue reading →

Alumni

Congratulations Seniors!

We are thinking of you seniors as you begin to hear back from colleges for next year. If you haven’t told us your plans for next year, please keep us in the loop by emailing alumni@islandschool.org. Here is a list of schools where we know some of our Island School alumni are heading next fall:

  • Amherst College
  • Bowdoin College
  • Colby College
  • Colgate University
  • College of The Bahamas
  • Colorado College
  • Dartmouth University
  • Elon University
  • Hamilton College
  • Hobart and William Smith Colleges
  • Kenyon College
  • Lewis & Clark College
  • Middlebury College
  • Occidental College
  • Princeton University
  • St. Mary’s College of Maryland
  • Trinity College
  • University of Colorado- Boulder
  • University of Miami
  • University of Michigan
  • University of Vermont
  • University of Virginia
  • Wesleyan University
  • Williams College

Congratulations class of 2012!

Daily Update

Daily Update March 22, 2012

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Yesterday afternoon, Peter and Teschna took their Marine Ecology class SCUBA diving.  We dropped forty feet down to Tunnel Rock, and swam around exploring under rocks, caves, and tunnels.  The idea of SCUBA diving during a class inspired me.  For one, already in our class we have learned a life skill that will extend itself far beyond Marine Ecology class.  In addition, diving gives our classroom work meaning: I find nearby fish species that I visit frequently to be much more relevant to me than those found under the arctic ice cap.  As we kicked our way around Tunnel Rock, Continue reading →

Cape Eleuthera Institute, CEI, research

Recreating a Historical Shark Research Project

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The joint CEI and University of Illinois shark research team just returned from the second of four, 2 week field expeditions to a shallow bank known as “the bridge” that connects the southern tip of Eleuthera to the northern tip of Cat Island. The first expedition went out in November 2011. The historical project is re-creating a study from a dataset detailing the diversity and abundance of shark populations in The Bahamas that took place over 30 years ago. Back then it was conducted by Captain Steve Connett and the crew of the R/V Geronimo from St Georges, Rhode Island. The current study is conducting surveys identical to those performed by Captain Connett and his crew 33 years ago, and has already discovered some very interesting results. In the original dataset, 96 sharks from six species were captured during 25 scientific longline sets. In just 12 sets, we have already caught 84 sharks from three species! Continue reading →