Presentation Day 3

The final day of presentations featured St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, and the British Virgin Islands, my presentation.

St. Kitts and Nevis is known for its tourism and has the most beautiful getaways in the Caribbean. In its past, sugar cane was the main source of income, but it moved to tourism. Its attractions are designed to keep visitors busy. Its future is bright. They have plans to modernize their tourism with renewable energy. I'd have liked to know more about what attractions there were on St. Kitts and Nevis.

Antigua and Barbuda have a water crisis caused by pollution, population expansion, and deforestation. The demand for water is high from population expansion, depletion levels, and food demands. Distilleries, food facilities, factories, and improper waste disposal all pollute their drinking water. Soil erosion caused by deforestation can also affect their water supply.

My presentation was last. Hopefully, it informed everyone about how human interaction, hurricanes, and climate change were affecting the coral reefs in the British Virgin Islands.

After seeing all the presentations, I don't have many complaints. I thought everyone did very well. I love seeing pictures in presentations and I don't think there was one person who didn't have a picture. I also liked the videos. My biggest critique would be to use bullet points instead of paragraphs. Long paragraphs are hard to read quickly and bullet points scale the information down to manageable bits.

This is my last blog post for the semester. I hope you've enjoyed this little glimpse the British Virgin Islands and its coral reefs!

Presentation Day 2

On the second day of presentations, we learned about the islands of Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Martinique, St. Martin/St. Maarten, the ABC Islands, and the Bahamas.

Puerto Rico has been influenced by many cultures, including Spanish, African, and American. The Spanish enslaved the Taino Indians, but replaced Indian slaves with Africans when they decided one black slave was equal to 4 Indian slaves. Africans brought over more religious beliefs and new styles of music. The U.S. military invaded Puerto Rico in 1898 for natural resources. Eventually military control ended and Puerto Rico was allowed to elect its first governor and draft their Constitution.

Jamaica has problems with poverty, gender equality, and violence. Most people are at the poverty line and women are paid less. Recessions and inflation caused poverty problems and health issues result. Jamaicans from the 18th century were worried about violence in school and had a punishment environment. Jamaica still has racism and sexism. I would have liked to have known if there was still problems with violence in schools today.

Martinique has faced water-borne diseases like leptospirosis and dengue. Leptospirosis is caused by drinking unsanitary water with animal feces or urine in it. Dengue fever is a viral infection transmitted from mosquitos. The symptoms are similar to the flu. The risk is higher in Africa, Asia, Central America, South America, and Oceania. Martinique has had 4 major dengue outbreaks.

St. Martin and St. Maarten are on the same island, except St. Martin is the French side and St. Maarten the Dutch side. The division affects their economy, culture, and politics. The Dutch side is known for casinos, happy hour, and shops, while the French side is known for cuisine. Tourism accounts for 60% of their GDP. They have carnival every year. St. Maarten holds a boat race and is a monarchy. St. Martin has over 300 restaurants and is represented in French parliament.

The ABC islands are Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao, located off the coast of Venezuela. Aruba is known for kite-surfing and windsurfing, Bonaire diving, and Curacao bird watching. The official languages are English, Dutch, and Papiamento. Tourism is helping people find jobs.

In the Bahamas, the Lucayans were the first inhabitants. When Columbus arrived, he wanted their gold and thought they would make good servants and Christians. Blackbeard the pirate operated in the Bahamas, as did Anne Bonny, Mary Reed, and Calico Jack. The Bahamas has been shaped by Columbus, pirates, and tourism. I would have liked to know more about how tourism affected the Bahamas. Do tourists visit the Bahamas because of its history of pirates or is it only for the beaches?

My next post will be Presentation Day 3, where I'll wrap up what I learned from the presentations and include what worked and what didn't during the presentations.

Presentation Day 1

Today's presentations were on the countries of Cuba, Saba and St. Eustatius, Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Guadaloupe.

From the presentation, I learned that around 70% of Cuba's GDP comes from tourism and US citizens used to be banned from going to Cuba.

Saba and St. Eustatius have the shortest landing strip and are only 5 and 8 square miles. They only get their groceries on Wednesdays.

Trinidad and Tobago's economy relies on petroleum and tourism, but getting petroleum is dangerous. They also sell sandals to walk on their coral reefs.

In Haiti, relief efforts are ongoing, but the standard of living is decreasing. Relief organizations are confrontational towards each other. Organizations want to make it look like they're doing work to make sure they get more funds. I would have liked to have known if there were any relief organizations in particular that were obviously helping people in Haiti instead of pretending.

Tourism and agriculture supports St. Vincent and the Grenadines's economy. However, agriculture has declined in the last 10 years and they import crops instead of using their own. They should get more film producers to make movies there to help the economy. I don't remember if it was mentioned or not, but knowing why agriculture was declining would be helpful.

Guadaloupe was originally inhabited by the Arawaks, who were defeated by the Caribs. The Arawaks were polytheists and their gods were called zemi. Folklore says the sun and moon came from a cave. But, most people in Guadaloupe are Roman Catholic today.

I'll include what worked best for the presenters and what didn't in my last presentation post: Presentation Day 3.

The Do's and Don't's of Presenting

After seeing my classmates' presentations, I've come up with a few ideas of what you should do and what you should not do when making a presentation.

Do:

• Add colors to the presentation. Colors make contrast interesting.
• Use bullet points. It's easier to read the information.
• Use large print. It's easier to read and makes the slide less cluttered.
• Add pictures. If you have a habit of writing a lot, pictures take up space, making you write less.

Don't:

• Use only black and white. Black and white can look fine depending on the presentation, but sometimes it can look unfinished.
• Use large paragraphs of information. Consolidating it down to a few points makes the slide easier to understand.
• Use small fonts. Squinting isn't fun.
• Forget the pictures. They help add information in an interesting and fun way.

Unfortunately, I never got to present my research proposal presentation, but final research presentations are coming up soon. If I were to guess on how well I would have done, I think I would have done pretty well. I knew exactly what I was going to say beforehand. My text might be a little too small on my slides, but it should be okay. My only definite problem would have been projecting my voice, but hopefully I'll be able to do that during my presentation in the next few days.

Presentation

Here is a preview of the slides from my research proposal presentation. The actual presentation is tomorrow, so wish me luck.

Research question

Conclusion

My Research

Blue coral by Shannon Gore

The research for my final project is centered around the coral reefs of the British Virgin Islands. Specifically, I'm interested in how the coral reefs are being affected by pretty much anything going on around the islands. I've found out that the reefs are impacted by interaction with people, such as sailors, tourists, and fishermen, and hurricanes and climate change.

The last two surprised me, because I didn't expect them to be as intertwined as they were. Apparently, warmer than average ocean temperatures don't cause more hurricanes and tropical storms, but they do cause stronger storms. 2005 is a good example year, as Hurricane Katrina was an effect of those warm temperatures. Katrina didn't make it all the way down to the British Virgin Islands. Similar storms, though, can cause fragile pieces of coral to break off and cause piles of coral called coral rubble ridges or coral clast ridges on the many beaches on the islands.

However, research is a little frustrating sometimes. Since my topic is very scientific, most evidence I can find for my paper is written very professionally in scientific reports. I'm not a scientist or even planning to be one, so it can be a little hard to grasp when articles start going in depth about fish density numbers and median ocean temperatures and even more topics I can't even begin to describe. It's slow going, but there has been a lot of articles to work with that I can mostly understand, which I'm really grateful for.

The next path I'm going to take for discovering more research is finding more about human interaction with reefs and more about coral bleaching related to high temperatures around the British Virgin Islands, if it's available. I've already found out a lot about hurricanes and coral reefs, so I think more information about those two is my next best step.

What are the British Virgin Islands?

The flag features Saint Ursula with 11 oil lamps, representing her virgins.
Vigilate is Latin for "be watchful."

The British Virgin Islands, composed of about sixty different islands in the Caribbean, have a culture as varied as their history. The islands, along with the nearby U.S. Virgin Islands, were first recorded in 1493 by Christopher Columbus. He named them after Saint Ursula and her 11,000 virgins, martyred in the 4th century. Before he arrived, however, the Arawaks called what would become the British Virgin Islands home before they were pushed out by the Caribs in the 15th century. No one is entirely sure what happened to the Caribs, but from the 15th to the 16th century, the islands were under Spanish control. Spanish convoys used it as a temporary anchoring spot to hide from English privateers. Then, the Dutch created the first permanent settlement in 1602. English farmers replaced the Dutch by 1666. Even today, the islands are still a British overseas territory.

Not surprisingly, Virgin Islander culture is a large mixture from all over the world: West African, European, and American. Johnnycakes, peas and rice, plantains, sweet potatoes, and soups served with dumplings are common foods. On special occasions, such as Christmas, guavaberry wine and guavaberry tart are served. The national dish of the British Virgin Islands is fungi, a mixture of cornmeal and okra. It's usually eaten with boiled fish or saltfish. The word fungi itself means "a combination" or a "cook up" and is used as the name for their local folk music, as well. Fungi music's roots lie heavily in African culture and first appeared during slavery. After emancipation, fungi bands appeared and played for holidays and weddings, but also for fun.

The culture of the British Virgin Islands also relates heavily to their oceans. Sailing is a popular pastime for Virgin Islanders and also brings tourists into the area, especially during the Spring Regatta sailing festival. The coral reefs keep British Virgin Island fishermen in business for red snapper, grouper, mahi mahi, and parrot fish. And the nearly sixty islands have plenty of coral reefs. Nearly 300,000 acres of reefs are spread out in British Virgin Island waters.

Their reefs are also a popular tourist destination for U.S. citizens, around half of whom arrive on cruise ships. Forty-five percent of their national income comes from tourism. Tourists usually visit the white sand beaches, the bars on Jost Van Dyke, The Baths--a unique volcanic formation--on Virgin Gorda, or snorkel in the coral reefs off of Anegada. If tourists want to go off the beaten path, charter sailboats take them to the less accessible islands. Maybe next time you're thinking of a vacation, you should consider the British Virgin Islands!

Map of the islands.
Notice the lovely and creative island names, including Prickly Pear and Fallen Jerusalem!