Marine Biology at the President’s Picnic

This past weekend, the Florida Institute of Technology hosted the President’s Picnic. This was an event that consisted of some really neat activities, and as a marine biology major at Florida Tech, you get to participate in a fun and unique way. Marine Biology majors and enthusiasts are encouraged to join the Marine Biological Society (MBS) here at Florida Tech which offers the opportunity of sharing your passion with the entire community.

At the President’s Picnic this past weekend, MBS had a booth in connection with the College of Sciences. This booth was designated for painting. I know, it sounds weird, marine biologists painting? What does painting have to do with marine biology?

At first, I had my doubts too, but it was actually a lot of fun! We had rubber stamps of different types of fish and other organisms. As people started to come to the booth, we had people bring their own shirts and they could actually imprint whichever fish they wanted on their T-shirt.

The process is pretty easy, just paint the rubber fish stamp whichever color you want, and then press the shirt down on the stamp, wait a few seconds while applying pressure, and remove. When the stamp is removed the fish leaves an imprint on the shirt in the colors that the painter chose.

Once the basics were mastered, people started getting creative, adding different colored fins, stripes to fish, and even tie-dyed sea stars! Other than helping people painting these cool shirts, and painting your own shirt, this event counted as civic engagement hours for Florida Tech, which a lot of incoming students will need for various classes or organizations.

Getting involved with the marine biological society is a great way to start getting hands on experience. The more involved you are on campus, the more connections you make that will help with research  and job opportunities!

Thank you Brian Bement for the use of these photographs