IS Blog Post #3

Friday, March 23rd

Hi East! It’s me. The past week has been pretty busy, so I have a lot to tell you guys:

Firstly, on Sunday night, we found out what research groups we’re in. We’ll be working with researchers from the Cape Eleuthera Institute (CEI) and the Center for Sustainable Development (CSD) along with other students and various faculty on different research projects that we’ll present to parents and researchers at the end of the semester.

I’m in the permaculture research group and am beyond excited! If you don’t know what permaculture is, it’s basically studying agricultural ecosystems, focusing on sustainability. This is extremely important to study because our world food system is quite flawed, and we need to find ways to improve it. To elaborate, our food system must have less environmental impact; it greatly contributes to greenhouse gases (which ultimately contribute to climate change) and uses a large percentage of our water (especially in the production stages). In addition, our food system needs to be more efficient, as some parts of the world population face obesity while others face starvation. So, throughout the semester, my research group will be trying to figure out three main questions: how can we effectively feed ourselves? How can we better understand the costs of successfully growing food on campus? And how can we figure out the best ways to communicate scientific ideas (and our message regarding food security) in the 21st century? Interesting stuff.

Another cool thing that happened this week is that I officially signed up for run-track, so I’ll be running the half-marathon at the end of the semester!

We’re officially into our academic weeks, so we have about three to four classes a day. Today, I had Seminar, Harkness, and Mar Eco (Marine Ecology) which were all very interesting.

I wish I could tell you guys every detail of this amazing journey so far, but for the sake of time, I better go and start doing my homework, so I’ll sign off for now. Talk to you guys soon!

Nora