T
eaching oceanography at a landlocked university is next to impossible— Dr. Sean Cornell, professor of geography/earth science, has tried it elsewhere. Thankfully, a fiftyyear partnership with the Chincoteague Bay Field Station (CBFS) in Virginia allows Ship students to experience the ocean and all that comes with it. “I never had the chance to take students to the ocean, but here I can put them on a boat in the ocean. They can feel the sand, taste the salt water. You can’t get that from a text book.” Located in Wallops Island, Virginia, the field station has served thousands of students as an environmental education center since 1968. Partner schools, including Ship, take advantage of the field station’s educational and research opportunities that provide hands-on learning and access to equipment, facilities, marine life, and more that is not accessible on their campuses. Dr. Nathan Thomas, associate professor of biology, has taught classes at Wallops Island since 2010. This past June, he again
he said. “It’s getting dirty, that’s what it’s all about.” This October, the field station will celebrate fifty years of its continued collaboration with partner schools. In a time when these partnerships are dwindling nationwide, Cornell said the anniversary is a recognition of the last fifty years, but also an opportunity to look forward to the next fifty. “We’re building new bonds and new relationships,” he said. “This is an investment in experience and research.”
offered a three-week on-site ornithology class. “Students see how it works, see the information, feel it, and we talk about it,”
Developing Partnerships
Photo courtesy of the Chincoteague Bay Field Station
In the late 1950s, President Dwight D. Eisenhower ushered in a scientific revolution, tasking American scientists with advancing the world, Cornell said. “When he said this, there was an explosion of research. In Pennsylvania, universities were trying to figure out how to prepare students for those jobs.” Ten years later, a summer program started at two locations—Cape May, New Jersey, and Lewes, Delaware. By 1973, the operation moved to Wallops Island, Cornell said, and at that point, the organization partnered with NASA. The location is a launch site
THE OCEAN IS CALLING 28
SHIPPENSBURG UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE
