I'm frequently asked how a marine
biology program at Ohio can be
successful and it and it really does
work the marine biology program has
actually been in existence since 1963
our students do get that hands-on
experience with the marine creatures
that they're studying
I was looking at schools that have
marine biology programs and it just so
happened that Bowling Green had one one
of the reasons that we are so successful
at Bowling Green State University is
because of our marine lab some of the
types of animals that we keep in the lab
we have lots and lots of different fresh
and marine water fish we have stony
corals and soft corals and anemones we
have about 40 or 50 aquariums and they
range in size up to 500 gallons the
purpose of marine lab is it is a
teaching lab you know the labs point is
so that people walk into here sometimes
and they never taken care of a tank
before they can receive instruction
personal one-on-one instructions one of
the early courses that we try to get
them into it's called an introduction to
inland marine research some of the the
skills that our students learn are the
aquarium husbandry skills how to do
general biological research that's a
really good way to learn how to
critically think and problem-solve so we
directly link education to research
but another opportunities I've gotten
with biology program is being able with
the professor's individual faculty are
very eager to host students working in
their labs both during the academic
years as well as during the summer we also give
our students field experiences near the
ocean and internships we try to
emphasize during the freshman year that
students at BGSU have this great
opportunity to work with faculty to
pursue internships so as faculty you
were in the classroom with the students
we try to communicate that often and
early the best part of the biology
program my perspective is definitely the
hands-on learning opportunities I've
gotten I was an intern at the Newport
Aquarium with the head shark biologist he
actually he's a Bowling
Green graduate and that really was
really really important to me because I
learned so much with a four-year degree
many of our graduates are looking to
become Aquarists some of them will want
to work for a US Fish & Wildlife or
other state and federal institutions
some have gone on to become directors at
marine parks and aquariums graduate from
the school or very spread out and that's
always a good connection to have
