UMass Boston

Course Description:
Ornithology is the study of birds. This course will explore the complex biology of birds, including evolution, functional morphology, physiology, ecology and behavior. Field, museum and laboratory activities emphasize particular aspects of morphology, ecology and behavior, as well as taxonomy and identification alongside native Massachusetts species.
The goal for this course is to provide a base of knowledge about birds in a way that will inspire you to keep learning about them through lecture, laboratory and field time. The course will focus primarily on the behavior, ecology and evolution of birds and the development of field skills. 

Credits: 4

BIOL 344/345 Both Lecture and Laboratory are required.                                 

Instructors: Luis DeLeon Reyna & Daniel Buitrago
Dr. Luis DeLeon Reyna is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at UMB. Prior to that he held positions at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute where he was a research associate and the Centre of Biodiversity. INDICASATAIP, in Panama. Luis received his PhD from McGill University, Canada where he worked on Eco-evolutionary dynamics in Darwin's finches. Luis studies evolutionary ecology in a variety of organisms, including bird, fishes and insects with projects adaptive divergence and speciation, human impacts on evolution and eco-evolutionary dynamics. Daniel Buitrago is a Ph.D. student in the DeLeon Reyna lab since 2017 whose focus is the ecology and evolution of contemporary diversification in Neotropical hummingbirds.

Course Description:
This class studies how people have used and changed the North American environment from the colonial era to the present through the local lens of Cape Cod and the islands, particularly Nantucket. Through discussion exams, and essays, students will master historical material and build skills in document analysis and written argument. This class does not require a background in history. Science majors and first-year students welcome.

Credits: 3
Instructor: Roberta Wollons Professor of History, UMass Boston.
Professor Wollons research specializations are in American Progressive Era history, women's history, and the history of education. Before coming to UMass Boston in 2006, Professor Wollons taught at Doshisha University (Kyoto), Indian University Northwest, University of Maryland, Case Western Reserve University, and Tohoku University (Sendai). She has held fellowships at the Charles Warren Center (Harvard University) and the National University of Singapore

Course Description:
Supervised research on the adaptations and interactions of organisms of the beaches, salt marshes, sand dunes, and embayments of Nantucket. In the first week students will participate in directed field surveys and experiments to become familiar with the marine and coastal environments and some common techniques used to research them. In the second week students will design and execute experiments to test hypotheses based on observations from one of the projects from the previous week.

Credits: 3 

Instructor: Elizabeth Boyle, School for the Environment, UMass Boston.
Dr. Elizabeth Boyle's areas of expertise include Coastal marine ecology and Salt marsh biology.
In addition to teaching Dr. Boyle is the Director of Academic Achievement Service Center at UMass Boston, School for the Environment.

Course Description:
This course will introduce students to important field-based methods for assessing biodiversity and estimating species richness, with applications for natural resource management and conservation. In this course, students will learn about spider biology, anatomy, life history, classification and taxonomy, and ecology through classroom lectures and discussions, field sampling, and laboratory processing and identification activities. Students will become familiar with the primary literature and scientific writing through two writing assignments.

Credits: 3

Instructor: John Dobyns

The Nantucket Field Station offers highly interested students internship experiences. Students must submit an application to be considered. Internships can be unpaid for credit or paid internships.  During the fall and spring student involvement is a mix of in-person and remote hours. In the summer in residence in person internships are available as 6 or 12 week opportunities. 

Completed internships consist of a minimum number of hours each week. A weekly meeting with the director, keeping a journal or field notebook, and leading a particular project. Students frequently lead nature walks, contribute to ongoing environmental monitoring, upload data, and assist the director in station operations. Interacting with the public and with other Nantucket partnerships is common. Working on the Boston campus remotely is a component of most internships as well.

Most interns are from UMass Boston but need not be. 

The Nantucket Field Station is a founding and active member of the Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative, a collaboration of nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, government agencies, businesses and individuals. The mission of the Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative (NBI) is to conserve the native biodiversity of Nantucket through collaborative research, monitoring and education. 

The Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative (NBI) funds a wide range of projects that support biodiversity research on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts and the surrounding offshore waters.