How We (Field)Work

At CIEE, classrooms are everywhere. Teamwork is in the sea and flies with a volleyball. We walk through art, through architecture, meet and make friends, and explore the water. We study marine science in the sea and in the lab, in the classroom and in the field room.

On Thursday, we explored Aula de la Mar. Students looked into the microscopic world to see what makes up three types of sand and a tiny selection of sea water and algae. We learned about the incredibly diverse world thriving in water, the memorial of living crustaceans that makes up the sand we play in. We discovered how a single plant can make or break the tide, the tidal wave, and even the waves of sand that it ends up strewn across. Some of what we learn is dark -- mounds of plastic that choke the life from marine organisms, boat anchors that disrupt ecosystems and invasive species that can outcompete local life. But all of it is empowering.