Léa holding a bundle of octopus eggs
Léa kayaking with the course professor
In the summer of her last year, KI student Léa participated in ocean field work in Eastern Canada as part of the Waterloo course ERS 374: Oceans, Human Impacts & Sustainability, supported in part by the KI donor-funded Knowledge Integration Experience Award.
Here's how Léa describes her experience:
This year, I participated in a field course called ERS 374: Oceans, Human Impacts & Sustainability where I got to spend two amazing weeks in Eastern Canada, one week in St. Andrews, New Brunswick and one week in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
This field course allowed me to have a better understanding of the eastern provinces and learn more about the ocean and its interactions with humans. We went sea kayaking, learnt some sampling techniques, and visited many different sites including the St. Andrews Biological Station (SABS), the Bedford Institute of Oceanography (BIO), The Canadian Coast Guard and Dalhousie University. We even got to see the process of aquaculture from start to finish and see naval vessels being built.
My perspective on the world has been impacted by this course and I’ll never forget the connections I made with the professors, other students on the course and with the professionals we met along the way. I highly recommend field courses or any other experiential learning opportunities to any other students interested in taking them, you won’t regret it!
Read about other KI students' summer experiences: Summer off? No -- summer on!