If you are looking for a laboratory class to complement Biology 181, I highly recommend that you look into Biology 182 - when it is offered at Yokosuka NB. This course is a bit different from other lab classes at UMUC in that we spend most sessions outside the classroom and meet on Saturdays so that we can take advantage of daylight hours.
There is no textbook for the course, but the lecture text is highly recommended. Students will be provided worksheets with each lab class that they will incorporate into brief lab reports. See the course syllabus for more information.
Yokosuka is in a good location for field trips, with decent intertidal habitats on the Miura peninsula, several nearby aquariums, and fish markets. All these sites can be accessed via public transportation (at your own expense).
In this course we will visit (weather permitting):
•Aburatsubo Beach - a rocky intertidal zone adjacent to a public beach and Tokyo University Marine Laboratory. We will learn to identify common marine animals and plants, and spend a second class session surveying their distribution.
•Koajiro Mori - a semi-protected forest along an estuary with one of the few remaining saltmarsh and mudflat areas in Kanagawa prefecture. You'll learn how organisms live in this soft bottom habitat and be amazed at the huge variety of crabs living there.
•Hakkeijima Aquarium - a private aquarium (also called Aqua Museum) that is part of the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise amusement park. You'll get to see, first-hand, marine mammals and birds, as well as many interesting kinds of fishes and invertebrates among their many exhibits.
•Tsukiji Fish Market - the largest fish market in the world! Tsukiji is an amazing place in central Tokyo where you can see all the strange and tasty sea creatures that Japanese people eat. You'll be amazed at the sheer size of the market, as well as the huge diversity of sea life for sale.
