Offered in the fall semester of alternate, oddnumbered years, the program begins with:

• an intensive integrated introduction to shallow water marine invertebrates at Beaufort, N.C.,
• an introduction to the primary journal literature in marine ecology, and
• guided independent research

With all three courses taught by Dr. Grant, instructor and students alike experience the positive synergism of learning transfer—information from class field work or individual research often sparks discussion during a seminar presentation, and conversely, seminar papers often suggest new directions for research.

Living, eating, working, and playing together in the same academic program creates a unique group bond and builds strong comaraderie within the group.

For the fourth course, we take the whole show on the road and spend 4 weeks traveling down the coast, spending a week or so at each of 3 field sites located at 200 mile increments south. Through sampling and identification of the invertebrate fauna, we conduct a group investigation in zoogeography.