When we unveiled our updated Island School logo last fall, we also got to work on updating the Island School uniform to match. In fact, it was two Island School alumni who really got the ball rolling. During their Fall 2012 semester, Ryan Schendel and Jake Varsano decided to take on this daunting task as their Human Ecology final project. Determined to not only live, but also wear, The Island School’s mission to live well in a place, they began to contact vendors and test products. By the end of the Fall 2012 semester, they finally found their match in Recover Brands, a small eco-clothing start-up based out of Asheville, North Carolina that shares our same devotion to conserving the environment. We are excited to announce our partnership with Recover Brands, and introduce their products, made from 100% recycled apparel. We also continue to be proud of our students’ efforts to be leaders effecting change, especially once they leave The Island School.

“Jake and I saw an opportunity to apply the sustainability factor of The Island School campus to the clothing we wear – this was a chance to take responsibility of the origins of our uniforms and campus clothes and recognize the impact our clothes had on the environment. I think the project was and will continue to be successful because now Island School students can be proud of the clothes they wear every day because they know the story, know their environmental footprint, and see a continuation of the campus sustainability from the moment they put their shirt on.

As for me, I know after I got my Recover IS shirt, it reminded me of our sustainable campus. Every time I put it on at home, I remember how it’s different from my other shirts, and it reminds me of Island School’s sustainability. I think it’s important in the future for IS students to learn about Recover and their clothing, just like when we got a campus tour of our sustainable systems. This way, their IS clothing can have an impact, just like it does for me.” –Ryan Schendel F’12

“I am proud to say this new clothing brings The Island School another step closer to its mission of sustainability. I hope our project inspires future students to aim their projects towards something they feel passionate about and are confident will help improve our campus, allowing it to be the best model of sustainability possible. I would also like to note the efforts that were put in on campus by all who helped once Ryan and I went home. To quote Maxey, ‘It is not about the guy with the idea, it is about the guy who recognizes the idea and helps run with it.’ Well, something like that. It is time that we started wearing our mission!” –Jake Varsano F’12

If your wardrobe needs updating, or your old Island School t-shirt needs replacing, visit the new online store: http://www.recoverbrands.com/store/category/the-island-school.

So today was our most physical day yet. We began the day with a rigorous run/swim. You may be asking what this is… We’ll explain! First there’s running around, then every one jumps into the ocean into a part of the bay called a cut. The swimming begins! We swam about 50 meters until we reached dry land, and began running again until the next cut. This continued for about 30 minutes constantly switching running to swimming, and so on. But it was fun! We all pushed through and challenged ourselves, encouraging each other along the way. At the end we all felt accomplished that we had finished the challenge together, as a team.

Our morning was spent studying the different fish species and identifying them through their specific features. To our surprise, there were fish we had never studied in the slide show. We still did a sufficient job! We then began working on our research. We all got into our groups and discussed our hypotheses and methodologies for research days ahead. After a delicious lunch of spaghetti, a Mexican dish and rice, we headed to a beautiful bay. Right off the white sandy beaches were areas of turtle grass, patch reefs and off in the distance was a barrier reef. This is where we will be doing our research for the remainder of this trip. We snorkeled for two hours straight. Our groups went their separate ways and looked at the different reefs pertaining to their research. This was the most beautiful place we had been to. There were turtles, parrotfish, triggerfish, damselfish, angelfish, and wrasses. (Look these up!!) The trail to the beach was 2ish miles from the road so we had to shuttle in a SUV. A few of us made it to the road and waited for the remainder of us to get back. After 30 minutes, they hadn’t showed up and we began to wonder what had happened. Just as we were about to hike the trail to find them, they emerged from the deep bushy forest. The SUV had broken down and was holding on by a thread. They pushed the smoking car along the treacherous trail. So we shuttled all 20 of us in two buses into town to get ice cream! We all got a frozen treat called a ‘cup’, which was made from the Tamarin fruit. Then we came back to the campus and so far we’ve spent the night relaxing and discussing the methodology for our research that we will start on Saturday.

Today’s quote: “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”- Albert Einstein
We chose this quote because today we were faced with so many challenges, and instead of being negative about them, we stayed positive. We encouraged each other and powered through them. Tomorrows Caciques are Mary and Shyann. Both showed leadership qualities today. We did a full clean up of the dorm and both volunteered to help in any way possible. Shyann pushed through the run/swim, even though she got sick. Mary has been dying to mop all week, and finally got to! She is always asking if people have drank water and looking out for everyone.

We miss you guys a lot!

Love,
Seal Team 12

Caciques- Marina and Sam

What an exciting Monday morning for aquaculture! We now have 3 goby breeding pairs that have all laid eggs this week. Our most recent pair needed to be separated from the two other resident gobies, so we decided to experiment. It has been relayed by word of mouth that gobies will clean parasites off the cobia. Nothing is ever that easy at CEI, so we needed to see it to believe it.

Nine thirty this morning, Marie and I decided to take the leap of faith and place the 2 gobies into the brood stock cobia tank. No one knew what to expect. Would the gobies like their new home? Would the cobia know to stay still so the gobies could clean them? How long would it take until we would observe the gobies actually cleaning the cobia?

Gobies are known for mysteriously disappearing from tanks, so we placed mesh goby exclusion devices on the outflow pipes to hopefully prevent escapements. We also placed a lovely pvc pipe condo into the tank for the gobies to make into their home sweet home, but they chose the resident current- air stone pvc pipe instead. Within forty-five minutes both gobies were observed cleaning the cobia on their gills, pectoral fins and face. All 3 cobia were lined up close to each other lying on the bottom of the tank. It was the funniest, cutest, and most intriguing behavior to witness.  You could sense how valuable and natural the relationship was for both fish species. I have previously seen the cobia lie on the bottom of the tank being lazy, but not lined up and so close to one another. What an exciting, successful (so far) experimental endeavor for the aquaculture team. Now all we have to do is get rotifers, keep them alive, and raise the goby hatchlings past 4 days! Easier said then done. Wish us luck!

by: Team Acult Research- Augie Cummings and Lea Luniewicz

Although we were down 3 scientist, Lea and Augie continued the research on the almighty sharknose goby. Earlier in the week we were on track to dive the cage, but despite Tyler’s heroic effort to save the day, we were without a boat. We recently received a small batch of 400,000  cobia eggs and spent all of Friday’s class separating out 8,500 cobia into a different tank.

The gobies are living it up in the pairing tank while some of those sly sharknoses have found their mates, and have moved on to better, more private real estate. They all seem to be getting to know each other better and some on more levels than others. All the color of the gobies have seemingly returned so physically they are looking pretty too. We believe that the guys indoors have been doing better because of the much more pleasurable environment. Until next time, stay classy South Eleuthera!

Yesterday afternoon, students assisted faculty and our facilities crew in getting the living roof on the Ryan E. Devos Bike Center. Though it was their exploration time, several students stopped by the building to help us get the soil up onto the roof.  Students shoveled soil, mixed it with sand, filled up buckets, and created a bucket brigade to get the buckets onto the roof.  Check out this video to see everyone’s hardwork!

[flickr video=http://www.flickr.com/photos/islandschool/4410372531/ show_info=no]