BRISTOL, R.I. – With the start of the Fall semester, that means students will be launching hands-on science lessons aboard the new research vessel, the InVincebleSpirit.
At Roger Williams University, our philosophy is to bring lessons to life through experiential learning, which doesn’t happen only inside a classroom or lab. With our science curriculum, we bring you out into the field, into tidal areas along our beautiful coastline, and into the depths of Mount Hope Bay and Narragansett Bay to study science in action.
That’s why 20 students in a physical oceanography class found themselves taking part in launching the first full class onboard the research vessel, once the university received Coast Guard approval in the final weeks of the Spring semester. As they voyaged out into Mount Hope Bay for experiments with water depth, temperature and salinity, Professor Jennifer Pearce noted that itwas the first time she’s been able to take her entire class, computer science and marine biology majors alike, to explore what they’ve only studied in the classroom and lab.
“This new boat means that everybody in my class can participate – not just the marine biology majors; some are computer science majors, and for them, this is the only time they’ll get to have this opportunity,” Pearce says. When she worked with smaller research vessels she would ask for volunteers from class, finding that typically non-science majors “wouldn’t step up so that science majors could get the opportunity. This way I can involve all my students in my experiments that normally wouldn’t get that in their curriculum.”