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Students inspecting fish. – Photo by Chrissy McLean
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Student’s dissecting salmon. – Photo by Chrissy McLean
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Chrissy McLean of Port Townsend dissects a fish. – Photo by Barbara Blackie
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Students Arielle Kelly and Julia Tatum handle and elephant seal eyeball during a workshop. – Photo by Chrissy McLean
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A whale breaching the surface during Peninsula College students trip at the Sitka WhaleFest on Nov. 7. – Photo by Mical Blanchard-Wright
By Naomi Gish
Professor of biology, environmental science and botany at Peninsula College Barbara Blackie, along with her students, attended a three-day conference in Sitka Alaska that featured talks and workshops on marine life and marine biology.
Students attended speaking sessions and breakout workshops at Sheldon Jackson University on Baranof Island.
Professor Barbara Blackie, who had attended the conference in years past, was pleased to bring students with her to share in her passion.
Presented by the Sitka Sound Science Center, Sitka WhaleFest granted scholarships to PC students for the first time this year and will continue the grant for the next two years.
“It was exciting to finally be able to bring students to the WhaleFest and see them asking interesting questions.” Blackie also says the symposium environment
“showed science as being really accessible and exciting to students.”
PC students were partnered with University of Alaska Southeast upper classmen throughout the weekend in a mentorship program that allowed students to learn alongside advanced students. The pairs went on a whale watching tour in the Sitka Sound.
Peninsula College was only notified of the grant it had received in early September and a class of 11 was quickly formed by recruiting students who had showed interest in biology through an interview process.
Students ranging from ages 18 to 52 including running start students and Native and international students all received the chance to be a part of the adventure to the last frontier.
Ploy Suskangiam, an international student from Thailand said,
“It was a great and unique opportunity. You meet very diverse people with the same passions.”
She also learned on this trip that oceanography, which she’d previously thought she’d be going after, may not be a pursuit any longer due to the discovery of seasickness she encountered over the week.
The theme of the three day symposium centered around the areas of the ocean, each day focused on a different physical location: the Shallow Apex, the Deep Edge and the Frozen Border.
Speakers that attended were renowned in their respective scientific fields. Mette Eekoff, a research technician in sea ice ecology and oceanographer Michael Castellini were a few of the engaging experts. Blackie recounts a talk on bioluminescence as being a memorable takeaway from the conference for herself.
Blackie noted that a favorite part for the students was Biomedicine Learning and Student Training or BLAST where students were able to perform various lab exercises.
A necropsy of a sea lion, a visit to the Alaska state raptor center and a fish dissection for parts testing were highlights enjoyed by participants
PC environmental science major Mike Middlestead, an said of his encounter with a bald eagle having a physical examination at BLAST that seeing that up close and being a part of it was powerful to him.
A trait of the speakers admired by Middlestead, were the life stories that scientists shared about how they become the top of their field. Some were high school dropouts or never took a biology class until late college, which inspired Middlestead who was in the coast guard for twenty-five years prior to discovering his passion for science.
“It reinvigorated me and got me excited again about pursing my degree,” he said.
