#ualbertascience

Welcome to Swaziland 

Our students arrived at Lidwala Lodge, in Ezulwini valley in Swaziland on Sunday, January 10. On Monday, our students had their orientation. After completing the orientation, many of students took advantage of the beautiful and idyllic location to hike Sheba’s breast.  Sheba’s breast are two distinctive peaks that are visible from Mbabane and Ezulwini Valley. The hiking trail to the top of the peak starts from Lidwala Lodge, where are students are accommodated for their first week in Swaziland. The peaks got their name from the legendary Queen of Sheba from Ethiopia. From the top of the mountain you can see Milwane Wildlife Sanctuary. Students have the option of visiting Milwane on their upcoming free weekend to see zebras, hippos, warthogs, and impalas up close. 

Talking to fourth year student Spencer Balay he says; “The first few days in Africa have been amazing. I don't think I have ever learned this much about so many different people and myself in such a short amount of time. Swaziland’s motto is “Sharing is caring”, and I couldn't be happier to share this incredible experience with the people here”

The Gateway: Volume 106, Issue 7 The September 9, 2015 issue of The Gateway.

Great article about the SAFS summer pilot in The Gateway this week. 

Just as a correction, the cost of the program is $15,200 not including flights. 

BIOL 495: Marine Field Techniques

Underwater Research, is a major component of the BIOL 495: Marine Field Techniques course. The first step required for our students to do the research was to learn how to scuba dive. Three of our 18 students arrived here with their Open Water Certification and were able to obtain their Advanced Open Water dive certification. Our other 15 students started the program by obtaining their Open Water diving certification. 

In these images we see a team of students collecting reef cover data using quadrats. The students were required to randomly select a location on the reef using kick-cycles, place the quadrat over the reef and then record percentage coverage of soft coral, sand, bare rock, sponge, massive coral, branching coral, green tree, starfish, clams, anemone, and algae. 

In Module 1, students had learned how to do a similar technique in terrestrial ecology, however, underwater certainly provided new challenges for these young biologists. Students learned that underwater data collection provides new challenges, dealing with time of dive, depth, current and dive capabilities.