On August 11, the fourth “XMU at Sea” Undergraduate Training Cruise was accomplished onboard RV TKK. To date, up to 250 undergraduates have participated in the program, obtaining valuable opportunities to practice at sea.

Ninety-seven students and teachers from XMU, Ocean University of China, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tongji University, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhejiang Ocean University, and other institutions participated in the three-leg expedition. Associate Professor Hongmei Chen, Professor Feili Li, and Professor Run Zhang from the COE served as the chief scientists of each leg respectively.

Teachers and students in each leg were divided into different groups to conduct various operations, including macronutrient determination, plankton trawls, benthic trawls, CTD casts, ADCP flow velocity measurement, hydroacoustic communication performance, gravity cores, covering marine chemistry, marine biology, physical oceanography, geological oceanography, and applied ocean physics and engineering.

Sediment sampling (Photo: Chang Wen)

Students were experimenting in the Main Lab (Photo: Xianling Li)

STS engineer helped students in the Electronics Lab (Photo: Xianling Li)

Multiple plankton sampler deployments (Photo: Xianling Li)

Moreover, three sequential legs of this year's “XMU at Sea” Cruise were themed “Inheritance”, “Innovation”, and “Integration” separately, inspiring the undergraduates who made their first field trip at sea with XMU’s rich maritime legacy and scientific research. In addition, the third “Teacher at Sea onboard RV TKK” online lecture was given by Yunjun Zeng, a biology teacher from Xiamen University Affiliated Keji High School, together with her student Mingxi Zhuang, during the second leg of “XMU at Sea” Cruise.

Ms. Zeng gave the lecture onboard

Students from Keji High School were having the online lecture

Photo: Chang Wen, Xianling Li, Xiamen Association for Science and Technology, Xiamen University Affiliated to Keji High School 

Revised by MarOps