Student Research in Marine Biology

Throughout the Marine Biology curriculum, students are taught to apply the scientific method to the marine environment. This is most evident in two places: in the marine journal that is produced in the sophomore Marine Biology course, and in the capstone Marine Feild Ecology course.

Marine Biology students have also completed senior theses investigating a number of hypotheses in detail. Students have undertaken projects that ask:

• Does the thickness and shape of a periwinkles shell changes depending on whether the snail lives on the mainland or on one of the islands off Maine?
  
• What structures are sea gooseberries really made of?
  
• Can the common starfish taste MSG?
  
• Do limpets shells get thicker on more exposed shores?