There are many reasons to venture out to the Oregon Coast: getting away for the weekend, shopping waterfront stores, or even surfing! But this past weekend, Rob Orr's Marine Ecology students underwent the journey for a specific purpose--bringing their current classroom studies to life.

"[T]he point of the visit was to experience species that we've been studying in class and see them in our natural environment," explained Meg H. '17. In recent weeks the students were assigned different species to study and gave informative presentations to their classmates. Meg, for example, has been studying hard corals.

Out at the coast, the scientists visited the Hatfield Science Center (where they got to explore some starfish!), walked along tidepools, and visited an oyster farm.

(Photo credits for above as well as more on Facebook: Experiential Education Coordinator Tom Handel)