This spring I was the teaching assistant for my advisor’s Marine Conservation course, one of the handful of courses offered to undergraduates who choose to spend a quarter at the marine station. Rather than a standard lecture format, the course consisted of a series of guest speakers who work in various aspects of marine conservation. Many were biologists, but we also heard from social scientists, geographers, lawyers, educators, and journalists. We also went on field trips to visit the elephant seals in Año Nuevo, go whale watching, tour the oceanographic vessels at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, and go behind the scenes at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The fifteen students contributed to their own blog about their experiences with the course, which you can read here.

Their capstone final project was to make a short film about marine conservation or their personal connection to the ocean. Many of the students (and their teaching assistant) had never made films before, so we organized a few workshops with a local director and editor on the basics of cinematography, sound production, and editing. Armed with just a few hours of training and a pile of cobbled together equipment, they worked throughout the quarter on their three-minute films, which they showcased in a final film festival at the station. I was so impressed by the quality and creativity of their work–check out their films on the Humans of Planet Ocean website, another Stanford undergrad initiative to engage the Millennial generation with the oceans.