INTEGRATING FIELD EXPERIENCES IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND COMMUNITY SERVICE: LESSONS FROM UNDERGRADUATE COURSES TAUGHT IN SAN SALVADOR ISLAND, BAHAMAS

Environmental science courses are being seen as an attractive option for infusing science across disciplines and within the context of a cross cultural experience. San Salvador Island, Bahamas, is an ideal site for engaging students in all aspects of environmental science. It is a small, family island with a population of roughly 1000 located away from the highly populated islands of New Providence and Grand Bahama. However, San Salvador is not immune from development, and one of our goals is to focus on teaching concepts of sustainable resource use to students at San Salvador Island High School as well as to our own students. There are several case studies based on recent construction projects (i.e. a sea wall, a marina and a landfill) on the island where students can apply basic geological principles; coastal processes, hydrogeology, karst, in assessing short term and long term gains/loses these facilities provide the community. In this presentation, we will concentrate on some examples that have been used with students as outreach activities as well as subsequent plans being developed for outreach with the high school in San Salvador. Our community involvement began in 2004 when our students helped paint the high school and disposed of trash. In 2005, each student teamed up with two high school students and completed a beach clean-up. Large items were taken to the landfill and several bags of smaller items were taken to the school to be sorted based on the amount of time it took for the material to degrade. Both 10th graders and college students calculated the percentage of each class of waste and displayed the results in the form of a bar graph. Students also attempted to determine the source of discarded items. In 2006, undergraduate students visited San Salvador Island High School and collected cans during the lunch period. During the 2006-07 academic-year, The First Year Academic Seminar in Environmental Science at GC&SU will work with the students of San Salvador Island High School to have a recycling competition among the classes. The Georgia Power Endowment will fund the containers and t-shirts for the winning class. After the seminar, students from that seminar class will be encouraged to participate in the 2007 course in San Salvador.