Although they spend plenty of time reading and memorizing, students in the class take a series of field trips to gain first-hand knowledge of marine life. Those hoping for warm, fuzzy encounters with whales, seals and porpoises will be disappointed. Instead, his class studies small marine animals without backbones. These are the creatures that colonize tideflats and hug the ocean floor. The class has spent spring quarter chasing low tides at Titlow Beach, Fox Island and Grays Harbor.
Students carry waterproof notebooks where they draw, describe and classify the animals they find.
It's wonderful to be able to identify all the things I've seen. We're really learning how to look close. A weekend trip to Friday Harbor Laboratories is one of the highlights of the quarter. At 6 a.m. Friday, Secord and his students set out for San Juan Island, closer to British Columbia than mainland Washington. The lab sits on 484 wooded acres on a mile of shoreline on the eastern side of the island.