Resources: SCISTP Web Products
The following SCISTP products are posted on various web sites and can be accessed by clicking on the product name or entering the URL of the site into your browser title bar.
The Internet has provided a significant mechanism of asynchronous communication in science and many other fields. These sites act partly as an electronic library where paper-based publications are stored for immediate delivery to end-users. It also provides a mechanism for sharing information in "informal" publications, often not peer reviewed, but, depending upon the expertise of the author, often significant in presenting data, ideas, or critique and insight of various topics.
Some of these products represent direct output from the SCISTP while others represent research efforts accomplished during the SCISTP.
St. Catherines Island Sea Turtle Program
This website, originally written and uploaded in 1995, was followed by a major revision in 2007 and a minor revision in 2009, presents an integrated overview of the St. Catherines Island Sea Turtle Program stressing conservation of loggerhead sea turtles, best practices of science education based upon sea turtles, and aspects of research into the nesting ecology of sea turtles.
Note-taking in the SCI Sea Turtle Program
Notetaking is one process of documenting the process of scientific investigation. This website describes note-taking as practiced in the SCISTP and presents the concept of chronological note-taking and computer-generated notebook forms.
Electronic Earth Science Education.pdf
Based upon a paper presented at the University System of Georgia Rock Eagle Technology Conference, this paper documents the status of computer utilization in the SCISTP in 1998.
Bishop, G. A. and N. B. Marsh. 1998. Electronic Earth Science Education: An Integrated, Holistic Approach. University System of Georgia Rock Eagle Annual Computing Conference, Rock Eagle Proceedings, 13-20.
SCI/Eisenhower Education Model (Ga. Jour. Sci)
The SCI/Eisenhower Education Model was published as a model to synthesize the power of a synergistic natural history program. It was also presented in a forum, Reshaping undergraduate Science and Engineering Education, in 1999 for the Society of Sigma Xi (The Research Society) as a model for emulation by other projects based upon outdoor education.
Marsh, N. B. and G. A. Bishop. (1998). The St. Catherines/Eisenhower Natural History Science Education Model. Georgia Journal of Science 56(4), 212-223.
Bishop, G. A. and N. B. Marsh, 1999. The St. Catherines/Eisenhower Natural History Science Education Model. 1999 Sigma Xi Forum Proceedings: Reshaping undergraduate Science and Engineering Education: Tools for Better Learning, p 143-144.
SCI Natural History Model
The synergistic SCI/Eisenhower Education Model was recast as the St. Catherines Island Natural History Model and supported the development of The Earth Sciences Computer Applications Laboratory (ESCAL) and the Model Technology Distance Learning Science Laboratory, at Georgia Southern University and The Portal Science Laboratory at Portal High School in rural Bulloch County, Ga.
Rock Eagle Rapid Habitat Assessment
Deteriorating habitat on St. Catherines Island in 1995 and 1996 resulted in an attempt to document the deteriorating sea turtle nesting habitat on St. Catherines" beaches. This process was presented in the University System of Georgia Rock Eagle Technology Conference in 1999 and published as an e-publication.
Bishop, G. A. and N. B. Marsh. 1999. Sea Turtle Nesting Habitat Assessment: A Rapid, Integrated, Technological Approach. Ahead of the Curve, Proceedings of the Rock Eagle Conference, OIIT University System of Georgia, 10 p.
Evolution of Emerging Technologies.pdf
Emergent electronic technology has been embraced by the St. Catherines Island Sea Turtle Conservation Program since its inception in 1990. Technologies exploited include computer- based instruction, synchronous and asynchronous distance learning, web-based instruction, and digital documentation. The 17-year Program, integrating "Conservation, Research, and Education," has taught 216 interns (175 teacher-interns) who have impacted over 220,000 K-12 students in the 17 years. Over 1947 loggerhead sea turtle nests have been conserved producing more than 114,907 sea turtle hatchlings. Evolution of technology utilization in 2007 included a new web site (www.scistp.org), web-based collaborative authoring and information exchange (TeamLink™), and traditional print-media publication." Based upon the publication:
Bishop, G. A., R. K. Vance, and B. K. Meyer. 2007. Evolution of Emerging Electronic Technologies; St. Catherines Island Sea Turtle Conservation Program, University System of Georgia Rock Eagle Technology Conference, P. 1-11.
Cretaceous Sea Turtle Nest (SWoT Site)
Discovery of the only known fossilized sea turtle nest in 1997 in the Cretaceous Fox Hills Formation of Elbert County, Colorado extended our knowledge of modern sea turtle nesting ecology into the fossil record. Several reports of this discovery have been published and is now documented on this State of the World's Sea Turtles website.
Bishop,G. A., Marsh, N. B., and Pirkle. F. L. 2000. Fossilized Cretaceous Sea Turtle Nest From Colorado, P. 101-104, in Kalb, H.J. and T. Wibbels, compilers. Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Symposium (1999) on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation. U.S. Dept. Commerce. NOAA Tech. Memo. NMFS-SEFSC-443, 291 p.
Bishop, G. A. and F. L. Pirkle. 2008. Modern Meaning in a 70 Million-Year-Old Sea Turtle Nest. State of the World's Sea Turtles SWoT), Volume 3 Hawksbills, p. 20.
Distribution of Ghost Shrimp . . . on SCI
Research on the distribution of Ghost Shrimp burrow on the beaches of St. Catherines Island was performed about 1987 by Eric and Gale Bishop and published as a paper in the American Museum of natural History (AMNH) Novitates series. That paper is now posted as a digital is product (a pdf document) on the AMNH Digital Library.
Bishop, G.A. and E. C. Bishop. 1992. Distribution of Ghost Shrimp, North Beach, St. Catherines Island, Georgia. American Museum of Natural History, Novitiates No 3042: 1-17.
AMNH: Geologic Evolution of SCI
Research on St. Catherines Island has been collaborative for a long time as is illustrated by the appearance of Thomas' 1136 page monograph on Native Landscapes of St. Catherines Island, Georgia. One collaborative paper in this monograph documents what we now know about the Stratigraphy and Geologic History of St. Catherines Island.
From the introduction of this paper:
"St. Catherines Island is composed of three major geomorphic systems: (1) Island core, (2) beach ridge complexes, and (3) salt marsh (fig. 3.1). The Island core comprises the northeastern third of the Island, is flat-lying, and has the highest average elevation (4–8 m). Island core vegetation is characterized by a mature, mixed deciduous–pine forest and fallow agricultural fields in various stages of succession. A series of parallel to subparallel ridges with an average elevation of 3–4 m, the beach ridge complexes, is located at the northern tip of the Island as well as to the south and southeast. Adjacent beach ridges are separated by swales that may contain intertidal to low supratidal tidal creek–marsh meadows or freshwater ponds. The ridge complexes are forested primarily by cabbage palm, hickory, pine, and live oak. The salt marsh appends to the Island core on the east and the southwest and consists of meandering tidal creeks separated by planar expanses of marsh grass (Spartina alterniflora) at the elevation of mean high tide."
Linsley, D., G.A. Bishop, and H.B. Rollins. (2008). Chapter 3 - Stratigraphy and Geologic History of St. Catherines Island, p. 26-41, In Thomas, D.E. [ed.], Native American Landscapes of St. Catherines Island, Georgia: 1. The Theoretical Framework, American Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Papers, Number 88, 1136 p.
AMNH: Natural History of SCI
Research on St. Catherines Island has been collaborative for a long time as is illustrated by the appearance of Thomas' 1136 page monograph on Native Landscapes of St. Catherines Island, Georgia. The papers in this monograph are available as a traditional paper publication and also posted on the AMNH as part of their Digital Library. This paper describes the natural History of St. Catherines Island. From the abstract of:
Reitz, E. J., D. Linsley, G.A. Bishop, and H.B. Rollins and D. H. Thomas with a contribution by R. H. Hayes and D. H. Thomas. (2008). Chapter 5 - A Brief Natural History of St. Catherines Island, p. 48-61, In Thomas, D.E. [ed.], Native American Landscapes of St. Catherines Island, Georgia: 1. The Theoretical Framework, American Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Papers, Number 88, 1136 p.
"Isolated from proximal fluvial sedimentation, St. Catherines Island is nestled in the apex of the Georgia Bight, where it receives the brunt of overwash activity (Deery and Howard, 1977). As such, the eastern margin of the Island contains a record of relatively rapid Holocene facies tract migration against the Pleistocene core. This juxtaposition of Holocene and Pleistocene components creates a very complex, but condensed, stratigraphic sequence (Howard and Frey, 1980). ‘‘Docking’’ of the transgressive Holocene barrier complex to the older core, about cal 3700 B.C. (5000 years B.P.) followed the late Wisconsinan sea level lowstand ca. 17,000 years ago. Vibracores less than 10 m deep taken along the eastern margin of the Island usually encompass its entire Holocene history and extend into Pleistocene sediments. In addition, present-day wave erosion of the east-central portion of the Island has exposed long outcrops of relic marsh deposits that provide three-dimensional views of the last few thousand years of depositional history (Morris and Rollins, 1977; Pemberton and Frey, 1985; Sherrod et al., 1989; West et al., 1990; Goodfriend and Rollins, 1998). With the possible exception of Ossabaw Island, none of the other Sea Islands affords comparable opportunity to reconstruct geological history of the Georgia Bight. This information has not been obtained by submarine coring eastward in the Georgia Bight, where offshore vibracores have disclosed only a veneer of Holocene and Pleistocene sediments, usually less than 4 m thick (DePratter and Howard, 1980; Pilkey et al., 1981). The Holocene transgression marched rapidly westward from a maximum lowstand of at least 60 m below present mean sea level, reworking the sediments of the modern continental shelf."