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DANVILLE, KY - Fourteen Centre College students recently completed biology field research at a field station on San Salvador Island in the Bahamas. Michael Barton, professor of biology, directed the travel-research program. He held classroom sessions on invertebrate biology and worked with the students on team and individual projects devoted to selected species of invertebrates native to the island. One team of students studied populations and distributions of terrestrial snails on the island, while another group studied the movement and behavior of snails in the intertidal zone. A third group focused on fish that live in ponds in the island interior. Barton says that snails and fish are good species for students to use in learning techniques for field research because of the diversity of species on the island and ease of access for student observation. The students had several weeks of classroom instruction at Centre upon returning from their field work. Barton, who has special expertise on fishes and their habitats, has been taking Centre students to the San Salvador field station on a regular basis since 1981. The field station formerly was a U.S. Navy installation and was adapted for biology field work by the Bahamian government and a coalition of U.S. colleges. The field station is heavily used by colleges, universities, Elderhostel and other study groups. Centre has a strong commitment to study abroad. Each year, more than 60 percent of Centre's graduates have had at least one study abroad experience. Rowland and Webster are 1997 graduates of Danville High School. Rowland is the son of Bob and Patti Rowland, and Webster is the son of Robert and Brenda Bell Webster. - end - Student participants in the San Salvador travel-study program during
January 2000: [RELEASED: FEB. 24, 2000]
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