High school students looking to pursue marine science studies in college can get a firsthand look at what that entails with Discovery Hall Programs' Marine Science Course. The unique four-week residential course at the Dauphin Island Sea lab exposes students to a full year's worth of marine science content. From classroom lectures to hands-on laboratory lessons and in-the-field exploration, students experience it all.

Students will spend their days absorbing information on the many facets of marine science, including salt marsh ecology, marine vertebrates and invertebrates, oceanography, botany, chemistry, beach and dune ecology, plankton and even human interaction and impacts. 

Former student Gen Kirstein said her college plans originally included Western Michigan University, but after attending the high school course she changed her mind.

"Two weeks into the course, I called my parents and told them that instead of just a biology degree, I wanted to pursue marine biology and in the state of Alabama, so, I could come back to the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in the future," Kirstein shared.

"A humbling experience, but a very knowledgeable one as well. You're challenged to be a better person," EJ Aloria of Wetumpka, Alabama said of his experience.

With so much valuable information being covered, and new science standards taking hold in the state, the course boasts credit status for all Alabama public high schools. Students from other states have also earned high school credit for the course, at the discretion of their school. 

Dr. Ishara Ramkissoon with the Emerging Scholars Program through the University of South Alabama echoes high praises for the class.  "The program is so detailed and so thorough that the students actually come away with a breadth of knowledge about marine science that really cannot be equated to anything else I know," Dr. Ramkissoon said.

The course runs June 25 through July 21 this summer, and all application materials are due by April 3, 2017. Click here to learn more about the course and to apply