by 
I am Becky Noel MacKay, an assistant professor of biology at Fort Valley State University. I was chosen to be a part of the STEMSEAS cruise aboard the R/V Neil Armstrong voyage AR 86-07, which is really a transit from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Coming into the program, I had been aboard the R/V Savannah for a few research cruises, but all of those were a single night, and all from when I was in my master’s program, which I graduated from 7 years ago. Because of this previous experience aboard research vessels, I thought I knew what to expect. However, I was definitely not correct. This experience has been so much more than I ever thought it would be.
The main thing I have taken away from this experience so far is a reinvigoration for learning. I feel like everyone that gets a PhD on some level has to love learning. Otherwise, how could you make it through all of that schooling? However, I think along the way it can get mundane or, worst of all, even feel like you stop learning. Still being a newer professor, I am still learning a lot about teaching techniques and I am honestly always prepping myself on the material I will be teaching, but most of that learning comes in the form of reading papers or textbooks. While this type of learning is essential, it can begin to feel quite stale. I imagine students probably feel similar after sitting in lectures all day, which is why our jobs as professors is to try to shake things up as much as possible. STEMSEAS has definitely been a shake up for me, and I could not be more excited.
Schedule for Today
We started the morning with a lecture from Joe Montoya, a professor at Georgia Tech, who discussed abiotic properties of water, specifically focusing in on how temperature and salinity affect water density and the ensuing impacts these changes have on water circulation. I know I have undoubtedly learned this concept many times, but learning it again while on this vessel and being able to discuss it with so many other people also interested in the topic with made the entire learning experience feel different. I can only imagine that would also be true for students.
After Joe’s lecture, we met with the two SSSGs who told us all about what it’s like being a marine tech on the Armstrong. Prior to their discussion, I didn’t really know what that job entailed, so I feel like I learned so much both about the ship and also about the people aboard the vessel. They went through all of the scientific equipment aboard and different potential projects that could be done with the equipment, which again inspired me to think about different research projects that could be done on future cruises but also just further lit the fire of excitement within me as I learned more and more.
We did all of this just in the morning! Check the second post to figure out what we got up to after lunch.
