It’s now the hot time for field practice at our marine biological station: the first shift of the field course for first year’s students is over, the new shift is starting. Although all the educational activities on Sredniy Island are exciting, this particular course brings very special memories for all the biology students at SPbU.
In early June students faced a kind of weather that was a bit too cold even for these northern regions. Late spring also affected sampling, but eventually we succeeded to collect all the variety of creatures to study local biodiversity. First year’s students visited a number of localities near the station by rowing boats, and also several picturesque remote places during the excursions onboard the larger vessels. Excursions are the core part of the course, but classroom activities are also diverse: sample sorting, identification, drawing etc. When one faces in person things that have only been discussed in theory during the semester lectures, one learns truly a lot during the relatively short time.
After the brief break three student groups continue with a botany field course in Peterhof, while the other three groups are about to experience the White Sea adventures.