From 3 to 5 February, the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IEE RAS) held an educational module of the Floating University Winter School. It was attended by 34 students — undergraduates, graduate students and young scientists from different regions of Russia.
Over the course of three days, lectures and practical classes were held in the IEE RAS laboratories as part of the educational track "Marine Biodiversity: Methods and Directions of Study". The participants listened to lectures on the study of marine mammals and birds, as well as on methods of collecting and processing data.
During the practical classes, the students learned about the operation of electron microscopes, learned about collecting and studying bone remains, and examined in detail the methods of photogrammetry for cetaceans. They also studied the features of benthic surveys of sea urchins as a food source for sea otters and tested in practice the use of GIS technologies for analyzing tracks, ice, and aerial surveys.
IEE RAS has for the first time participated in the Floating University as a platform with its own program. We thank the IEE RAS staff who organized the educational track and acted as lecturers.
The Floating University Winter School is the first stage of the annual cycle of the program. The scientific supervisors of the tracks select students based on a motivation letter and certain skills. Students who complete the school can take part in the next stage of the Floating University, which operates on the principle of "learning through research".
The Floating University program is implemented within the framework of the UN Decade of Ocean Sciences, is part of the Science of Winning initiative of the Decade of Science and Technology of the Russian Federation and is supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The organization is carried out by the Floating University Coordination Center based at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.
The pictures from the event can be viewed in our VKontakte group: part 1, part 2, part 3.