Best marine science student in the world - 2nd year running.

The best marine science student in the world second year running, 2015 and 2016.
Well Done Christine (2016) and Tom (2015)  :-) :-)

Classroom with a view. And excellent place to study.

TRACC teaching has recieved the fantastic news that for the second year, we have beaten all other students across the world to achieve the honour of highest scoring Cambridge Examinations Marine Science student in 2016.

The rest of the ALL STAR students in 2016 also did really well with only A*, A’s and B’s.

In 2015, we also manged the best marine science student in the world plus great results all round

Do you need great results to help get into University? Gap year or year out with a qualification!  Do you want to be a better Scuba divemaster or Instructor? Get more knowledge about the ocean through a professional, internationally recognized, Marine Science Course.
 
Why do we get good grades -  TRACC only offers one A level, Cambridge Marine science 9693 and we get excellent results.
Our record for A grades is 75%.  That's a whole lot of UKAS points if you want to get into uni, or its a good step towards your first year at college.

Scuba diving & Marine science lessons on a beautiful tropical island can get you a real internationally recognised Pre U qualification in a 14 week period of 2017.  The A level starts mid Jan 2017 and ends with the exams in late April.

For more info@tracc-borneo.org
http://tracc.org/marine-science-course-a-level-9693/

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A-Level All Stars 2016

The Classroom 

Only A*, A’s and B’s for the 2016 A-level class of TRACC! The many hours spent learning and teaching inside the stilted and turtle adorned classroom, studying on the jetty, the hammocks, number 4, and wherever else the class could find a quiet spot and a moment to resist the lure of the ocean has paid off.

The scores are awesome, but more so is the knowledge the class gleaned and shared. Simply by cohabiting the camp with an emphasis and atmosphere of learning and teaching, and plentiful knowledgeable people, the whole camp

Ocean Acidification Experiment
with Sophie and Basil 

became a little more tuned to the science of the ocean.

Congratulations all you fantastic A-levelers – Christine, Sophia, Peng, Sophie, Graeme, Basil, Oliver, and Tom Tom! And to all the wonderful teachers that helped them along – Tom, Steve, and Hazel!

For more info on the course please email info@tracc-borneo.org or visit the the website! 

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If you want to help with any marine conservation activity please check out our website tracc.org or e-mail info@tracc-borneo.org

For updates check out our facebook, twitter or Google +

Reef conservation would not be possible without the generous financial support from GEF/SPG for Malaysia who are helping our community activities, and coralreefcare.com who generously provide materials to build more reefs.   

If visits to Tracc are not possible then please help with financial support and follow our projects on facebook

Fantastic 2016 marine science A level results.

Tracc are very proud to announce our 2016 A-level results! 3 A*, 2 A and 3 B!! All our candidates worked exceptionally hard and should be very pleased with themselves. We certainly are. Well Done Everyone!!
 
 More info on the course and how we have achieved amazing results for several years. 

marine-science-course-a-level-9693

Photos of  the practical classes,
 

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If you want to help with any marine conservation activity, please 
check our website http://tracc.org or e-mail info@tracc-borneo.org 

For more updates on TRACC check out our Facebook, Twitter or Google +

More Marine conservation projects

Reef conservation would not be possible without generous financial support from

GEF /SGP for Malaysia who are helping our community activities and coralreefcare.com who generously provided materials to build the new reefs.

If visits to Tracc are not possible then please help with financial support and follow their projects on Facebook.

A-level Experiments

In recent weeks, the A-level students have been conducting their own experiments using the reefs and ecosystems on our doorstep to further their understanding of the course material.

Ocean Acidification

To demonstrate and understand the possible effect of ocean acidification on corals and their calcium carbonate skeletons, the students designed a lab experiment to see exactly how acid affects coral.

Tom's acidic solutions and test coral fragments

The students prepared solutions with different levels of acidity and exposed pieces of dead coral fragment to each solution to simulate the effect that an increasing level of ocean acidity would have on live corals.

The students found that the more acidic the solution, the more mass the dead coral fragments lost. This was due to the calcium carbonate structure of the dead corals being dissolved into salt, water and carbon dioxide by the acid present in the solutions

Christine measuring mass loss

The results of the experiment were sobering and illustrated the potential devastating effect that ocean acidification may have on coral reef ecosystems around the world.






Plant Physiology: Photosynthetic rate

Sophia collecting produced 
oxygen for measuring

To demonstrate and understand the different factors which affect primary producers and their rate of photosynthesis, the students designed a natural experiment to see how light intensity affects the rate of photosynthesis of sea grass.

Graeme checking his experimental
set up

The students used oxygen production of the sea grass (Thalassia sp.) in our lagoon for a proxy of photosynthetic rate. By comparing the light intensity throughout the day and measuring oxygen production at specific intervals, the students found that light intensity has a great impact on photosynthetic rate. The students found that more oxygen was being produced when the sun was stronger, confirming their hypothesis.

Home-made oxygen capture kit

Bycatch smells!

The real problem of bycatch is the smell of rotten fish.

The tracc marine science alevel class watched the landing of 137 fish boxes or over 4000 kg of decomposed  bycatch.  These small fish crabs rays should have grown into adults in a sustainable #fisheries instead of being trash destined only for fishmeal at less than 10 cents US$ per kilo.
At kota kinabalu sabah malaysia

Coral identification

The easist corals to study are in the lagoon and
are very shallow at low tide.  However even with the books
and easy access it is hard to identify hard corals to family
and we can identify very few to species.   YET :-)

More blogs on Marine science class 2016
More info on the Cambridge Marine science A level class


Become a volunteer in 2016 here

Conservation projects 2016

For more information, please check our website or e-mail info@tracc-borneo.org 

The main website is at tracc.org
Check out our social media posts on our activities
on fb tracc.borneo
on twitter tracc_borneo
on google + tracc 
Instagram  traccborneo

How to do a Beach transect

line the tops of two poles with the horizon

Beach transects were the marine science fieldwork practical today.  Of course, a quick study of the tide tables showed that the new moon low tide (spring tides) was in the middle of the day.  At the equator, (TRACC is at 4 Deg N), the big tides each month are always high at dawn and dusk and low at midnight and midday.

Equipped with sunscreen and carefully marked survey poles the intrepid Marine Science A level class braved the short walk to our beautiful white sand beach.

The techniques is simple, from the low tide line the beach slope and elevation is measured at 20 cm intervals. The height of the water at the time of low tide is known from the tide tables. The longer survey pole is held at the low tide line and the shorter pole moved up the beach until looking across the top of both poles lines up with the horizon.  When the two pole tops and the horizon are aligned then the short pole is 20 cm higher up the beach than the long pole.  We measured the distance between the bottoms of the poles to give a measure of beach slope.

We repeated the process, by moving the big bottom pole to the position of the top pole and then repeating the leveling by moving the top pole another 20 cm vertically up the beach.














The beach slope was fairly constant at 1in 7 or approximately 12 degrees.  With a giant yellow protractor we checked this.angle.

 With a practiced technique we are now ready to tackle beaches with varying slopes, sediment types and biological communities.

More blogs on Marine science class 2016
More info on the Cambridge Marine science A level class

Become a volunteer in 2016 here

Conservation projects 2016

For more information, please check our website or e-mail info@tracc-borneo.org 

The main website is at tracc.org
Check out our social media posts on our activities
on fb tracc.borneo
on twitter tracc_borneo
on google + tracc 
Instagram  traccborneo

marine biology fieldwork -jetty communities

Rocky shore Zonation practical for the Cambridge (CIE 9693) A level Marine science course.  TRACC teach this class once each year from January to April.  The first fieldwork practical of the course was a study of the zonation on the man made wooden jetty on Pom Pom Island, Sabah Malaysia.

The students marked the posts at 50 cm intervals relative to the tidal chart datum (lowest astronomical tide).  The location of the barnacle zone and the snail zone was measured in relation to this fixed chart datum.  The vertical position relative to the tide of all of the visible snails was measured for 7 jetty legs.   Observations were made that the snails were more abundant on the N side legs (shaded by the jetty above) and on the South side legs (not shaded from above) the snails were mostly on the side of the leg away from the sun.

The results showed clear concentration into discrete zones by both barnacles and snails.  The barnacles were concentrated into the zone from 50cm above cd to 90cm above cd with a few on the shady North legs at upto 110cm.
The snails were more abundant on the North legs (average 14 per leg) than on the South Legs (average 5 per leg).  The snails were also found higher up the Shady legs (average position of top snail was 1.7m (N legs) compared with 1.4m (S Legs).  The zonation of the snails is on the kite graph and the snails were most abundant at 1.4m above CD.

It is clear that the snails are actively choosing the shady jetty legs and if they are on the sunny side legs then they find the shadiest spot.  On the shady legs they can also rest between tides higher up the leg presumably because it is cooler.

These results lead to more questions about ecology and behaviour that the A level class will be answering in the near future.

More blogs on Marine science class 2016
More info on the Cambridge Marine science A level class












 Become a volunteer in 2016 here

Conservation projects 2016

For more information, please check our website or e-mail info@tracc-borneo.org 

The main website is at tracc.org
Check out our social media posts on our activities
on fb tracc.borneo
on twitter tracc_borneo
on google + tracc 
Instagram  traccborneo

Getting good grades at A level

TRACC only offers one A level, Cambridge Marine science 9693 and we get excellent results including in 2015 - the student with the highest marks in the world.
Our record for A grades is 75%.  That's a whole lot of UKAS points if you want to get into uni, or its a good step towards your first year at college.

shoreline transects are next to the classroom.

One of the reasons we get such good grades it that it's much easier to do your A-levels like this than it is in a 2-year school setting. At school you will be tested on something you studied 18 months earlier. In this course no information is more than 3 months old. Also, school might devote 6 hours a week to an A-level. We have people living and breathing science constantly. It goes in by osmosis almost. Plus, there's nothing else to study for.

Up close and personal with mangrove forests

You're only holding 1/3rd of your A-level information in your brain.

Finally, we spend the whole of revision week revising this one subject and doing past papers. It gets to the point where people say "Oh, this question was on yesterday's paper with different numbers". In practice tests our students start to count the marks they DIDN'T get, rather than the marks they did.

OH yes, having the ecosystems and biodiversity next to the jetty cannot hurt either.  A few days ago we interrupted class to go and watch Pilot whales and Dolphins.  Today, we watched giant frog fish and blue ring octopus in our lunch break!  We also have turtles nesting and amazing coral reefs around the island.

Study time after a diving practical

We can only offer the A level class once each year but our volunteers, gap year travelers who come for shorter periods also learn a lot about marine conservation, scientific diving, ecosystems and biodiversity.


More blogs on Marine science class 2016
More info on the Cambridge Marine science A level class
















 Become a volunteer in 2016 here

Fish population growth     Video

Rescued sharks 
Conservation projects 2016

For more information, please check our website or e-mail info@tracc-borneo.org 

The main website is at tracc.org
Check out our social media posts on our activities
on fb tracc.borneo
on twitter tracc_borneo

Beach study using profiles, transects
 and quadrats.

on google + tracc 
Instagram  traccborneo

Tides make so much more sense
 when the students watch them change each day.

Best Marine Science Student in the world

Tom making a close study
of the marine environment.

Congratulations to Tom Gibson who was the best marine science student in the world in 2015.


We knew our Cambridge CIE Marine Science 9693 Students were an awesome bunch with great results but to have the highest scoring student in the world is still an honour.


Dedication, hard work and serious immersion in his subject pays off.

 Very well done Tom
.


For more information about the TRACC Marine Science A level please click here

TRACC gets 60% A & A* Grades in the 2015 Marine Science A Level

The A-level results are in and TRACC have had another bumper crop of excellent grades! 100% A*-C with 40% of our students scoring an A*!

Adding this our already impressive history in teaching this diverse and exciting course we now have a (haha) TRACC record of 75% Grades A or A* ! That's a cool 120-140 UCAS points if you need a boost to your British University application. The Cambridge Marine Science (9693) A-level is also well recognized by other institutions around the world.

You may also be interested to know that only 25% of our A-level candidates have had any previous scientific study and 40% have only high school education (age 16 in the UK). The intensive nature of the course, the small class size and the constant availability of the tutors means that this course, and a good grade in it, is well within the grasp of anybody.

TRACC are one of the few non-academic institutions offering this interesting and comprehensive scientific course worldwide. It runs annually for approximately 12 teaching weeks between January and April, culminating immediately in the Cambridge exams in early May. There is literally no way to forget anything since you eat, sleep, breathe (and dive) marine science every day for 12 weeks. Then we have a week of intensive revision followed immediately by the exams.

The course is fieldwork based with lots of practical immersion in the subject.  Check out our trips to study Rocky shores,  Fisheries, Mangroves, , Coasts, plus underwater biodiversity and ecology studies.

Hard not to be inspired by beaches as beautiful as this.

As though this wasn't enough, the  A-level course includes 12 weeks accommodation on our certifiably beautiful beach and PADI Open Water and Advanced Open Water as well. PLUS we have amazing macro marine life,  turtles nesting on the beach...++

The 2016 Marine Science A-level will be running from 18th January - 2nd May (following the Cambridge exam timetable). 

For more information, please check our website or e-mail info@tracc-borneo.org

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