Have you ever wondered how scientists can tell how old a fish is? Or what a fish’s body and tail shape can tell you about how it swims and where it lives? For many people, fish are simply what’s on the menu, but at the 2014 HSBC Explorer Program, BIOS education staff gave students and teachers the opportunity to learn about fish from nose to tail, and from the inside out.

Each year, around this time, high school students are faced with the often-daunting task of deciding what to do in the upcoming summer months. Volunteer? Study abroad? Work? Intern? While the final decision rests upon many factors, Bermudian students interested in pursuing careers in the ocean or atmospheric sciences have to look no further than the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS). Each summer, as part of its Ocean Academy, BIOS runs two programs for high school students that provide unique opportunities to learn and work at the research station.

From February 23-28, nearly 5,600 ocean scientists, engineers, students, educators, and policy makers gathered in Honolulu for the 2014 Ocean Sciences Meeting. This biennial meeting, co-sponsored by the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO), The Oceanographic Society (TOS), and the American Geophysical Union (AGU), is an important venue for scientific exchange across broad marine science disciplines. With 141 scientific, educational, and policy sessions, the conference covered topics as wide-ranging as phytoplankton biogeography, ocean science workforce development, marine renewable energy, microbial oceanography in the deep sea, infectious marine diseases, and climate change.

Experience Bermuda from Shore to Sea. Join a select group of high school students for a once-in-a-lifetime adventure investigating Bermuda’s marine environment at BIOS while learning offshore sailing and navigation, and experiencing the Sargasso Sea on board Bermuda’s 112 ft. national tall ship, Spirit of Bermuda. Led by experienced staff and instructors, this unique joint shore to sea field course gives participants the experience of a sail-training program that infuses a global science perspective with both cultural and historical elements. No sailing experience is required. Eight professional crew provide instruction on basic sailing skills, navigation techniques and safety.

A donation to BIOS means empowering Bermuda’s students. For students from Harrington Sound Primary, that means an annual field trip on a BIOS research vessel for a plankton tow. For Clearwater Middle School students, it means learning from BIOS educators about marine debris, then personally participating in a beach clean up.

Since 2015, the Mid-Atlantic Robotics IN Education (MARINE) program has been a core component of BIOS’s Ocean Academy, which offers a suite of hands-on education and research opportunities for students and teachers in Bermuda. BIOS is pleased to announce that MARINE has a new lead sponsor in RenaissanceRe, which has generously funded the program for the next two years, supporting the program’s goals of engaging participants in scientific concepts and enhancing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in the classroom.

In 2000, BIOS realized its vision of serving as a year-round educational institute with the development of spring and fall semester programs designed for undergraduate students interested in ocean and atmospheric sciences. The initial fall semester program consisted of three courses—coral reef ecology, marine invertebrate zoology, and marine biology and oceanographic research—and was created in partnership with the University of Rhode Island (URI) and Roger Williams University (RWU), both located in Rhode Island on the east coast of the United States.

Since 1987, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has funded a research internship for undergraduate students called the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. The internships, which usually run for 10 to 12 weeks, are hosted at universities, research institutions, and professional scientific organizations and allow participants to work alongside faculty members and scientists on research projects in a wide range of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Canadian Associates of BIOS (CABIOS) student Annaliese Meyer, a microbiology student who worked with BIOS chemical oceanographer Damian Grundle, presented at two conferences in 2019 and early this summer moves to Australia for continued research in astrobiology.

A partnership between BIOS and two Massachusetts-based institutions was strengthened with the addition of a new microbial oceanography course, held for the first time at BIOS in January.