Schools

Field excursions and school outings to our field station Centro Marino Elba on the Island of Elba - Italy

Marine Biology is not one of the typical subjects of most school curricula. The importance of the World's oceans for mankind though is rising in our general awareness, especially with regard to global warming. A field excursion to the Mediterranean Sea helps raising the attention for the sensibility of ocean systems with its habitats and their inhabitants. Elba, thanks to its island status, can still provide almost untouched coasts. While snorkeling along the coast the students move into the habitat itself to observe and understand the organisms within their natural environment. While participating in sound theoretical and practical lessons with modern microscopes and presentation media they can discover unimagined details of live in the oceans.

If you plan a marine biology field trip our experienced HYDRA team on Elba welcomes you and your group to use its infrastructure and service. We will design the full program or parts of it, in the water as well as in the classroom.

The beautifully situated field station above the bay of Fetovaia is well suited for the accomplishment of marine biological activities. Undisturbed work is possible year-round. Snorkeling from the gently dropping sandy beach is easy, also for beginners. Attractive study sites are easy to reach by foot: boulders and hard bottom of different rock and exposure, rockpools and sandy beaches lie within a few minutes walking distance from the institute. The blue grotto of Cavoli, the Golfo di Galenzana and the black beach of Le Tombe can be reached by boat. Typical habitats as sandy and shell bottoms, seagrass meadows, boulder grounds, steep rocky faces and algal turfs can be found directly within the bay of Fetovaia. A special feature are the biogenic structures of the prècoralligène / coralligène reefs with high biodiversity at the Punta di Fetovaia. The deeper areas are reached by SCUBA dives. Animals, seagrass and algae are sampled by the staff divers of the station to be at your disposal in the classroom. Staff or guest scientists are usually ready to give a short talk about their current research projects or may even set up a small demonstration

Scientific dive centre

A fully equipped dive center with snorkel- and SCUBA dive gear, dive excursions and research tools is integrated into our field station. The equipment comprises 60 complete snorkel sets including neoprene suits and 25 complete SCUBA dive sets. Our boats allow excursions with up to 24 participants at once. On-board VHF radio, mobile telephone and medical oxygen are standard equipment for your safety.

Classrooms

For talks, seminars and laboratories we provide two classrooms with about 22 working places each, presentation media and a library. Two small laboratories for experiments and special studies are also available. Outside a big roofed working area allows extended work with the samples and the to conduct experiments, as well as to keep sampled organisms for several days. The optical equipment comprises 20 ZEISS stereo microscopes, 20 simple stereo microscopes and 8 compound microscopes, partly with photo adaptors. Microscope images can be displayed for the whole audience via screen and projector. Video registration is possible in DV format. Digital videocameras are used for longer monitoring and documentation of experiments. In the lab simple scales, centrifuges, glassware, a heating oven, and a sieve column for sediment analyses are provided. The classroom library comprises standard textbooks, taxonomy guide books and keys, and special literature.

Land excursions

Elba Island offers extraordinary possibilities to experience the small scale relationship and interaction of land and sea. The aspects of natural history, - marine biology, geology, geography and plant sociology -, are as important as the history of human settlement and its effects e.g. by land use and tourism. During a walking or hiking tour we guide the group through the Mediterranean macchia bush passing centuries old vineyards and igloo-like stone shelters of goatherds. We direct the students' attention to problems like ever-increasing shortage of water supply, soil erosion, arson and invasive species.

Field reports in the internet:

(These are URLs only, no links. Please copy the actual address to your browser):

Europaschule Gymnasium Bad Nenndorf: www.gymbane.de/index.php?id=359

Neues Gymnasium Oldenburg: www.neuesgymnasium.de/magazin-ngo/8-klassen-kursfahrten/561-so-laessts-sich-lernen.html

Literargymnasium Rämibühl: www.lgr.ch/portraet/faecher/bio/aw01elba/index.html und www.lgr.ch/hpunkte/awochen/elba05/index.html

Friedrich-Schiller-Gymnasium Weimar: www.schiller-gymnasium-weimar.de/index.php?id=188