Courses, Internships and Opportunities
Each summer, UMass Boston offers several field courses from late May through August. These courses feature field work that allows participants to use the island’s natural and cultural resources to investigate classroom topics. Courses offered explore many fields of study -- from history to marine biology, to spider ecology. These programs, as well as all of UMass Boston's summer programs, are administered through UMass Boston's Continuing and Professional Studies, which oversees corporate, continuing, and distance education.
The program fee per course does not cover meals, books, insurance, or travel to and from Nantucket Island. Bunkhouse housing provides two bathrooms and two bedrooms of bunkbeds, shared full kitchen, dining room, and conference/lounge space. Periodic transportation to town is provided, students are responsible for their own meals. The total program fee is based on the tuition rate per credit, course fee, and housing fee.
Prerequisites: Admission to Nantucket Summer Program and Permission of Instructor. The instructor will evaluate prior academic history to evaluate preparedness for this course.
Admission: Students must apply to the course(s) of interest. For course application forms see the summer course descriptions.
Summer Field Courses on Nantucket
Biology 344/345 Field Ornithology
Course Description:
Ornithology is the study of birds. This course will explore the complex biology of birds, including evolution, functional morphology, physiology, ecology and behavior. Field, museum and laboratory activities emphasize particular aspects of morphology, ecology and behavior, as well as taxonomy and identification alongside native Massachusetts species.
The goal for this course is to provide a base of knowledge about birds in a way that will inspire you to keep learning about them through lecture, laboratory and field time. The course will focus primarily on the behavior, ecology and evolution of birds and the development of field skills.
Credits: 4
BIOL 344/345 Both Lecture and Laboratory are required.
Instructors: Luis DeLeon Reyna & Daniel Buitrago
Dr. Luis DeLeon Reyna is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at UMB. Prior to that he held positions at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute where he was a research associate and the Centre of Biodiversity. INDICASATAIP, in Panama. Luis received his PhD from McGill University, Canada where he worked on Eco-evolutionary dynamics in Darwin's finches. Luis studies evolutionary ecology in a variety of organisms, including bird, fishes and insects with projects adaptive divergence and speciation, human impacts on evolution and eco-evolutionary dynamics. Daniel Buitrago is a Ph.D. student in the DeLeon Reyna lab since 2017 whose focus is the ecology and evolution of contemporary diversification in Neotropical hummingbirds.
ENVSCI 359 Wildlife Ecology
Course Description:
Wildlife ecology is the scientific discipline of applying ecological principles to the study of wildlife species and their habitats which feeds into conservation and management decisions. In this course, students will be exposed to foundational wildlife ecology principles and primary literature on topics such as food and nutrition, home range and habitat use, dispersal, distribution, species interactions (e.g. population growth, competition, predation, parasites, and pathogens), behavior, and responses to environmental perturbations.
Credits: 3
Instructor: Jason Courter, PhD
Apply to ENVSCI 359ENVSCI 480 Biodiversity of Freshwater Invertebrates
This course is designed to introduce students to the incredible biodiversity of freshwater invertebrates and foster an appreciation and understanding of the ecosystems we study in SFE. This course will also teach both field and molecular biomonitoring methods in freshwater environments to enhance students’ skill sets in environmental assessments.
Each day will begin with a short class to go over the field (or lab) work for the day, answer any questions and then into the field we go! Students experience immersive field sampling, lab sample processing and data analysis.
Apply to ENVSCI 480Immersive Opportunities
Field Station Internships
The Nantucket Field Station offers highly interested students internship experiences. Students must submit an application to be considered. Internships can be unpaid for credit or paid internships. During the fall and spring student involvement is a mix of in-person and remote hours. In the summer in residence in person internships are available as 6 or 12 week opportunities.
Completed internships consist of a minimum number of hours each week. A weekly meeting with the director, keeping a journal or field notebook, and leading a particular project. Students frequently lead nature walks, contribute to ongoing environmental monitoring, upload data, and assist the director in station operations. Interacting with the public and with other Nantucket partnerships is common. Working on the Boston campus remotely is a component of most internships as well.
Most interns are from UMass Boston but need not be.
Apply to Internships
Independent Study
UMass Boston undergraduate students may conduct research through the independent study option at the field station. To do so, students must have a faculty advisory and approved project proposal in their department of study. If you are interested in working directly with the station director, it is through the School for the Environment or in conjunction with your department and the station. The College of Liberal Arts Anthropology Department and the College of Science and Math, Biology Department frequently have students with Nantucket related projects.
To request information about conducting work on island, use of the lab and housing options available through the Nantucket Field Station, please email Yvonne Vaillancourt. Be sure to include a description your project or area of expertise and faculty advisor.
Day Use Guidelines and Group Visits
UMass Boston Nantucket Field Station Day Use Guidelines
As a teaching and research organization with decades of experience in the Nantucket environment, we welcome the opportunity to share ideas with you about interesting and appropriate ways to use the station for environmental education. To preserve our habitats for teaching and research, and to insure a quality experience for our visitors, students, and investigators, we ask you to observe the our facility and grounds group visitor guidelines:
- Email or call our office at 508.228.5268 three weeks in advance to request your group visit.
- Field trips are limited to 25 people total per visit.
- Sponsoring organizations are responsible for making sure trip participants observe posted Field Station Guidelines
- Groups of 4 or more must sign in at the sign in box attached to the lab using the large group sign-in sheets. People using field station grounds in groups of 1-4 people should sign in using the daily sign in sheet (left side of sign-in box).
- Visitor parking can be found on the right about halfway down the drive. The second lot is reserved for official field station laboratory users and is across from the lab, which is the first building on your right as you enter the property. Only authorized vehicles are allowed beyond this point, except for those with handicapped access or preapproval by the station director.
- The field station trails are open to the public, buildings and equipment are not. Please respect the privacy and work-in-progress of our resident students and researchers. Do not touch or disturb experimental apparatus.
- The field station is home to many species of island flora and fauna. Please tread lightly and try to observe birds and animals without disturbing them.
- It is permissible to pick up shells or rocks from the beach as long as they are not providing a home for an organism. Please leave all living organisms and plants where they are, unless you are doing a research collection and have the proper permits.
- To preserve fragile vegetation, please do not walk on the dune or salt marsh.
- For your safety and to limit erosion, do not climb the bluff or stand on its edge.
- For their safety, please keep children under close supervision, and away from the bluff.
- Flags, marking tape, buckets, plastic hoses, and other objects around the Field Station are in use for on-going experiments. Please do not disturb.
- The field station has no public restrooms.
- Please carry out all objects which you carry in.
- Dogs are allowed at the field station; many do visit, please pick up after your pet. A pooper-scooper box is provided by the sign in board.
- Maps of the trails are available at the sign in location and at the large kiosk.
Funding and Engagement Opportunities
Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative
The Nantucket Field Station is a founding and active member of the Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative, a collaboration of nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, government agencies, businesses and individuals. The mission of the Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative (NBI) is to conserve the native biodiversity of Nantucket through collaborative research, monitoring and education.
The Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative (NBI) funds a wide range of projects that support biodiversity research on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts and the surrounding offshore waters.
Explore NBI grants, conferences and events.
Contact Us
Nantucket Field Station
180 Polpis Road
Nantucket, MA
02554
Phone: 508.228.6268
General Email: NFS@umb.edu
Director: Yvonne.Vaillancourt@umb.edu
Hours:
Spring/Summer: 9 AM-7 PM
Fall/Winter: 9 AM - 4:30 PM
(or by appointment)