Courses for SEAmester Students
Courses subject to change.

Required Course for ALL Students

PRD 285-8101
Navigation and Seamanship
This course is required of all students in the SEAmester program. The basic skills of seamanship necessary to operate a large sailing vessel on an extensive voyage will be practiced. Skills in coastal piloting, dead reckoning and celestial navigation will be taught. Students will stand watch and become an integral part of the crew.

Humanities Course Options

HST 225 three credits
Maritime History
Co-requisite: PRD 285-8101
A topical survey of American and Caribbean History from colonial days to present. The course is unified by lectures, readings, field trips and oral reports based on student research. Emphasis is placed on the lore of ships and the influence of economic patterns on the establishment of a maritime nation.

SOC 159 three credits
Maritime and Caribbean Ethnology through Literature
Co-requisite: PRD 285-8101
This course encourages the student to use literature as a tool to engage culture during the spring SEAmester trip aboard the Spirit of Massachusetts. The course examines the origin, distribution, and distinguishing characteristics of the varying cultures in the maritime Atlantic and Caribbean and how they have interacted and changed through space and time. Our sources will be works of literature that address the condition and way of life at sea and in the Caribbean islands, as well as our own observations and experiences as seafarers aboard Spirit and as travelers ashore. We will discuss the global heritage of these cultures through colonization, slavery, immigration, trade and globalism as well as the Diaspora both to and from the Caribbean. Issues such as social organization and behavior, status, race, identity, ethnicity, gender, and politics will form the crux of class discussion and analysis.

Marine Science Course Options

Please select two (2) courses from the following:

MAR 245 three credits
Biological Survey of the Atlantic and Caribbean Coast
Co-requisite: PRD 285-8101
A descriptive survey of the flora and fauna of temperate and tropical seas, intertidal zones and coasts. Lectures will emphasize ecology and field studies will incorporate detailed observations and field note taking. Ecosystems visited usually include coral reefs, mangroves, rocky shores, sandy beaches, salt marshes, estuaries and more.

MAR 210 three credits
Coastal Geology
Co-requisite: PRD 285-8101
A study of the geologic and oceanographic processes that shape coastlines and form beaches. Fieldwork will include note taking surveys of coastal environments including barrier islands, rocky shores, estuaries and sandy beaches while considering the impact of sea level change, storms and human variables.

MAR 240 three credits
Biology of Zooplankton
Prerequisites: Two Biology 100 series.
Co-requisite: PRD 285-8101
A study of the major groups of zooplankton (including planktonic larvae), their positions in the marine food web, reproduction and development, motility, metabolism and special distribution. Emphasis will be on observations of samples collected in the field off the SEAmester vessel. Both temperate and tropical seas will be surveyed.

Optional Online Course for 5th Course
Please view online course options at www.umassd.edu/online/.

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