"Field Workers" Experiences

          Bachelor of Science in Biology students of Leyte Normal University  had an educational field work at Guiuan, Eastern Samar and they went to the Bureau of Fishery and Aquatic Resources, Pearl Island, Calicoan beach, Linao cave, Sulangan church as their Impartial fulfillment in their subject SCI_119AL-2 (Ecology) instructed by Mr. Facundo Rey M. Ladiao. The main goal of the field trip was for the students to learn and experience the lessons they discuss on the four walls in their classroom.

@ Pearl Island Fish Sanctuary

            The first site they have visited was the BFAR Guiuan Station; Biology students went to the different hatchery of marine animals and they passed on the breeding area for giant clam (Tridacna gigas) and oyster. The assigned personnel for that area discussed about the process of making pearl by the giant clam and oyster and the mutual relationship of giant clam and the protozoan zooxanthellae - the giant clam gives carbon and nitrogen and in return the zooxanthellae give carbohydrates (Oligosaccharides) for the food of giant clam but this process is possible only with the aid of sunlight.

Giant clam encounter - with  Lief Erikson Gamalo

            The spirit of adventure had begun in the Pearl Island, the next location visited by the students. The Island was very small, indeed. But the living organism there especially the marine animals is totally diverse it was supported in the activity conducted by the students using twenty meter of straw with a five meters interval, the students were instructed to draw on what they have seen under the water also for those students know how to swim swam to the giant clam site and saw many different species of fish and corals. The spirit of adventure was felt more in the island because of its insufficient supply of freshwater because they depend only in the rainwater for the water they will use in taking a bath and in their solar panel for their source of electricity.

Fieldwork

            The next place visited was the Calicoan beach and Linao cave. The biology students walked through the beach forest to reach the Linao cave, the main purpose was for the fourth year Biology students to sights bats in that cave. Aside from the bats living in that cave, the biology students were also amazed in the limestone formation, lagoon, and the stalactites and stalagmites. In the evening the students set up the nets to catch aerial animals, the students caught two fruit-eating bats and one kingfisher and in the morning it was released in the wild. Also, the students placed their quadrat on the sea when it was low tide and list/drawn the different species they have seen inside the quadrat. The educational trip was completed after our visit in the Sulangan church. 

@ Linao cave with Jay Torrefiel

@ Calicoan beach

            After the three days and two nights in the field, it was really helpful for us to understand the lessons we are discussing in the classroom it pushed us away from being an armchair scholar into “Field Workers”. The educational trip was very useful for us because we learned, we enjoyed, we experienced.

Dinner with my Colleagues after the field work in Calicoan Beach