Course Reviews

Australia has given me, amongst so many other things, the opportunity to take classes I would never be able to take at my uni in the states.  So to embrace this opportunity I spent this semester studying Australian History, Fisheries Science, Aquaculture and Marine Chemistry, all of which presented their own challenges and rewards.

Australian History was, at the very least, a history class and, at the very best, a history class.  Lectures were in-depth descriptions of the rather comical history of the founding and growth of the country.  Tutorials consisted of presentations and discussions of significant events that shaped the way Australia became what it is today.  The majority of the class was made up of Americans and the tutorials often became debates over American history.  Despite this, I did learn a great deal about a country whose history is greatly ignored in the States, but I do think it's my last history class for a while.

Fisheries Science was by far my favorite class.  It was full of case histories and equations and all of the information made sense.  Our lecturer arranged a series of really hands-on and effective labs which began with a field trip trawling for prawns in Cleveland Bay.  Subsequent labs included age determination, age vs length determination, gut content analysis and gonad measurement.  These labs culminated in a report on the effectiveness of the bycatch reduction device used on the trip.  The class was made all the better by the enthusiasm and knowledge of the lecturer.

Aquaculture was another good class with an awesome lecturer.  The majority of the semester was spent by raising cobia-monitoring water quality, feeding them and maintaining their tanks.  The final assessment in the class was a report examining the feed conversion ratios, standard growth rates and weight gains of the fish raised on different feeding regimes based on those we raised the cobia on.

Marine Chemistry and Chemical Ecology was the only class I regret taking.  It was one of the worst classes I've ever taken.  We had two lecturers, one of which made it very plain that he had no desire to be teaching us while the other talked so fast and assumed we knew so much that we didn't really ever learn anything.  The labs were simple but inconsequential to our learning.  Really the only good thing about the class was the awesome friends I made by bonding over our mutual dislike of the course.  I would not recommend anyone take this class as nobody seemed to enjoy any aspect of the course.

But I survived all of my exams and made some really great friends in all of my classes, so all in all I wouldn't trade my experience for anything in the world.

To find out more about studying abroad in Australia visit the website http://www.studyinaustralia.gov.au/northamerica.