Hey hey hey! My name is Sam Forman, and I’m a rising Junior at Jones College! Some facts about me: I’m from Tampa, FL, I like to swim (good thing we’re spending a week at Glover’s!) and I am an Environmental Science major with a minor in Business!
In November, I heard about this class, applied, and made my friends apply too. In January, we were accepted. In February, we met to assign taxa and topics and introduce the course. In April, we met to look at snakes and check that our equipment worked. And now, in May, we depart for Belize tomorrow!
My expectations for this course, in truth, are limited. I expect to have fun, and beyond that I barely know what to expect. I have experience in the tropics, as I took a vacation to the Galapagos in 7th grade, but I am also fully aware that this will be about 1-5% like that trip. I also have visited the Florida Keys as part of a 6th grade school trip and done some snorkeling and marine biology exploration there, but nothing to the level of what we are going to do in this class. I know I will see things I’ve never seen before and do things I’ve never done before, and I’m excited about that. That’s pretty much all I’m expecting. I’m expecting to be wowed, the mechanism by which this will occur I cannot foresee.
A lot of this course consists of things I have generally heard about. I have heard about tropical rainforests and studied them in class, and I have extensive experience snorkeling around coral reefs. I’m excited to marry the two. The course has us learning in depth about the ecosystem through lectures and primarily through experience. I have not experienced experiential learning to this degree, so I’m quite excited about that. Accomplishments-wise, I see great potential for this course beyond tropical field biology-related educational growth. I am going to live in a rainforest with no AC and many other things I operate daily with. There will not be a Target 10 minutes away if I need anything. These two weeks will be an accomplishment in the sense that I will have lived without these things I “need.” That’s an accomplishment in and of itself. Tropical Field Biology-related foreseen accomplishments include extensive fieldwork, among others. The most fieldwork I’ve done has been in BIOS 213. Time wise, BIOS 213 Labs were probably 5-10% of the time we will spend in the field in Belize. And it will be condensed much more. I’m excited to run field experiments, (as the ant-man I have to look forward to the pee one, right?)
Pee-gets us into the “what I’m nervous about” section of the post… I’m nervous about accomplishing what I described above. It seems like it will probably be fairly difficult. The bathrooms, among other things, will likely not be similar to what I’m used to. I’m also nervous about my 3 presentations, on Ants, Wrasses, and a longer lecture on Wrasses, but that is likely the same as any pre-presentation nerves. I feel well prepared, as all of the prep work for this class has indeed felt like a full time job this past week. Between actual coursework (Taxon ID Cards, slideshows, reading) and the many shopping/ pharmacy trips, the course preparation was quite intense. Even just packing was intense, as I tried my best to finagle everything into the waterproof luggage & water-resistant backpack I have while leaving room for the helmet and sleeping bag. And, in general, I’m just jittery. So, after cautiously but hurriedly packing my bags and setting things out for myself for tomorrow (pictured below,) I’m gonna go to bed and…
…see you tomorrow for the DAY ONE RECAP!!!
<3 Sam
