Together . . . - Poly Prep Country Day School

soPhia PorotsKy—sEa Lions
“Yesterday we landed on North Seymour. it was a dry landing and we started out on a nice hike. After getting to
the top of a small cliff, we saw that two baby sea lions were waiting for us.
Everytime i see the sea lions i feel like they are posing for the camera, holding a position, craning their neck
backwards, holding still until we were done!
Today we landed on a beach on the island of Española, which again contained so many sea lions! i have
noticed that i am especially interested in sea lions.”
charLiE cuLLEn—darWinian finchEs
“On the way back we spotted many of the
famous Darwinian Finches of the Galapagos.
Our guide could easily tell what species
each fi nch was. i found this impressive considering that
there are hundreds of different species of
he first nches time on Science the islands. Department The Darwinian Chair Sandy Finches
Bornstein went have to been the the Galapagos focus of Islands, many scientists it was the and trip of
a lifetime. She had naturalists no idea she who would visit the soon Galapagos. be turning it
into the course of a lifetime. Their varying
In summer 2005, shortly after returning beak sizes from are her
first Galapagos trip, sponsored by a Williams studied Chair to show
grant, Bornstein made a presentation the for effects the Science of
Department.
rapid evolution.”
Around the same time, fellow science teacher
Suzanne Wolbers was energetically pursuing travel
options for students. She found a company that runs
educational tours and took a teachers’ trip offered over
winter break. Conversations between the two soon
spurred the idea of returning to Galapagos with students
and turning the experience into a course on evolutionary
theory.
“Since Suzanne had success with the company for
MaE carLson—LonEsoME gEorgE
“At the Charles Darwin Research Center on Santa Cruz,
we saw a tortoise called “Lonesome George.” He is the
last remaining tortoise from pinta island and he won’t mate
with the other females they provide for him that come from
the other islands—which is why he is lonesome.”
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