Zoology Botany (ZooBot) hosts three complementary courses that students take for a full quarter of 15 credits. Students also have an option to take a 1-credit seminar course which will bring their schedule up to 16 credits. All students are required to live on Friday Harbor Lab’s campus, which is located on San Juan Island (around a 4 hour trip via car and ferry from Seattle). Direct all questions to FHL’s Academic Services Manager at fhlstudents@uw.edu.

Prerequisites for this program and topics covered in those courses are listed below. Course prefixes and numbers are in accordance with the UW Seattle system. We welcome non-UW Seattle applicants as well.

• BIOL 180: Mendelian genetics, evolution, biodiversity of life forms, ecology, and conservation biology (introductory biology)
• FISH/BIOL/OCEAN 250: physical, biological, and social aspects of the marine environment – oceanography, ecology, physiology, behavior, conservation, fisheries, exploration, and activism (introductory marine sciences)

Marine Zoology (FHL/BIOL 430, 5 credits) & Marine Botany (FHL 440/BIOL 445, 5 credits)

Instructors: Dr. Megan Dethier and TBD

Stephanie Zhu

The Zoology and Botany courses survey marine invertebrates, algae and marine vascular plants represented in the San Juan Archipelago emphasizing and integrating natural history, ecology, and taxonomy. Frequent local intertidal field trips to a variety of habitats allow students to study organisms in their natural environments, and dredging collection trips using FHL’s research vessel permit exploration of subtidal systems. Lectures are followed by detailed laboratory study of live organisms often collected by the student. All students also perform organized outreach activities with local schools.

A 4-day field trip to an exposed rocky coast enables study of the organisms on wave-swept shores.

No textbooks are required for these courses.

UW Marine Biology majors enrolled in each of these courses are eligible to earn Biodiversity credit.

Research in Marine Biology (FHL 470, 6 credits)

Instructor: Dr. Hazel Havens

The Research in Marine Biology course will introduce students to the essential elements of how to design, conduct, and communicate the results of a basic marine science research study.The students will also carry out a basic field-based research study and have the opportunity to apply these elements and experience the process of original research from start to finish. The course will cover the following:

1. scientific ethics
2. reading scientific articles
3. experimental design/sampling design and hypothesis testing
4. data management, and
5. basic statistics for drawing valid conclusions from analyses

Students’ course projects will include field trips to collect environmental/organismal data, and will engage with the peer-review process of writing and revising multiple drafts of a research paper, to fine-tune how their results are presented to the scientific community.

No textbook is required for this course.

UW students enrolled in this course will earn (W) credit.

UW students enrolled in FHL 470 are eligible and encouraged to apply to the Mary Gates Endowment for FHL.

UW Marine Biology majors enrolled in this course are eligible to earn integrative field experience (IFE) credit. 

Marine Sciences Seminar (FHL 490, 1 credit)

Instructor: TBD

There will be one lecture per week by research scientists. The topics will cover different fields of research. Participation is obligatory for registered students wanting to gain credits, but all students are encouraged to attend. No textbook required.