After a year of quarantine, social distancing, and occupancy limitations, undergraduate students from Texas A&M’s Department of Oceanography were able to get back into the field for much needed, hands-on learning during two cruises this spring semester. As part of the Oceanographic Field and Laboratory Methods course, the cruises were led by Dr. Chrissy Wiederwohl.

Over the last year, this course had to be taught without these field trips because of COVID-19 protocols. Lab and field methods like collecting various samples from a research vessel had to be demonstrated or explained in the classroom and online.

“It’s hard to teach field methods without the field,” Wiederwohl said. “So, the second Texas A&M said they were opening up field trips again for the spring semester, I jumped at the opportunity.”

Even with field trips like this open again, safety still took precedence. COVID-19 testing was required for all students and faculty on the cruises as well as wearing KN95 masks and social distancing throughout the trips. These cruises were also still subject to a 50 percent occupancy limitation.

For some students, these field trips were their first opportunity to experience oceanographic cruises. For others, like seniors Dylan Halbeisen and Andrew Jansen, the April 9 cruise could be their last cruise before graduating and moving on to the next step in their careers.

“My favorite part was watching everybody work together,” Halbeisen said. “Everybody’s on the job, taking it seriously, there for the science and for one another; it’s a pretty powerful moment.”

The field and lab methods course included two research cruises in Galveston Bay during the semester, on March 2 and April 9, 2021, to give students the hands-on experience that can be lacking in other programs of study.

On the first cruise, early in the semester, each student learned how to use all the different equipment and to properly collect a variety of oceanographic samples on the ship at least once. When the second cruise came around, later in the semester, the training wheels came off and the students were expected to run the show and work as a team to accomplish all cruise goals.

“It was great to actually apply some of the stuff we’ve learned in class,” said Jansen.

The students can also take pride in the fact that their data collections were not only for class purposes, but also contributed to ongoing oceanographic research. By sampling at various sites along the Houston Ship Channel, the data collected by the students is often used to help fill in gaps of other studies taking place in Galveston Bay.

“They like seeing the behind-the-scenes… they’ve had a lot of classes where they work with data sets, but don’t know where they came from,” Wiederwohl said. “It gives them their first real taste of what being a scientist is, from raw data collection in the field to the final data product.”

At the end of the course, students prepared a complete cruise report where they presented all the data collected over the two cruises, just as any other oceanographer would.

“What I enjoy the most is the students' excitement about these research cruises and how much they grow as scientists throughout the semester,” Wiederwohl said.

By Justin Agan ‘18