The spring collection and analysis were an astounding success this year. Members of the program performed most procedures flawlessly, both on the beach and in the water. This year's analysis also held its own excitement in regards to DNA Barcoding. For the first time in our program, DNA was successfully collected and shipped off to Eurofin for species sequencing. This is a huge step forward for our program, and we are excited to see what other data specialized analysis teams find in the future!

This year's fall collection and analysis went extremely well. After the long break due to the global pandemic, it was vital to continue our program's success and spawn excitement in students. Team leads and assistant team leads did an excellent job in welcoming the new members into the program, and their training proved effective. Many samples were collected and analyzed, and even though we could not bring middle and elementary schoolers to the beach in person, we still made presentations to inspire them to join the NaGISA Program. 

The global pandemic clearly impacted the program strongly. However, over the course of this past school year, we have successfully performed our procedures with the same practiced expertise as before. We implemented safety procedures to keep both the student's and faculty's health as our first priority, including masks and social distancing. Moving forward, we will continue to persevere and maintain the excellence our program is known for. We thank everyone for their support and hard work throughout these past two semesters, and look forward to a great 2021-2022 year!

Fall 2019 collection went well this year. At dive collection, over one hundred specimens were collected and preserved. Dr. Paulay from the University of Florida assisted us once again with ARMS analysis, and we successfully analyzed over a hundred organisms. At the beach collection, we demonstrated the protocol to over 50 elementary and middle school students, and were successful in getting all of our samples.

While the Spring Collection and Analysis were planned to be on April 18th and 19th, due to inclement weather they were pushed back a week until April 25th and 26th. The beach collection was successful, gathering all seven quadrats' data without incident, while the one meter dive was collecting offshore. The water conditions for the divers were not favorable, with poor visibility and rough waters. The one and twenty meter dives were completed successfully despite this. All seven beach quadrats were successfully analyzed, along with the one and twenty meter dive depths with no complications. Along with Collection and Analysis, new externs were selected out of a large pool of well qualified candidates. The 2019-2020 externs are David Ott and Clara Beth LaFollette, as head externs; Emma Wagner as Head Dive Coordinator; Caroline Swanick as Assistant Dive Coordinator; David Dye as Head of Analysis; DJ Tomassetti as Head of Collection; and Katherine Veth as Head of Training. We thank everyone for applying and are excited for a new NaGISA year!

As we get ready for Spring Collection and Analysis, which is fast approaching, some of our NaGISA students have started selling chocolate around the school and around the community. The students are carrying blue and white cardboard boxes which contain 5 different types of chocolate: milk, dark, almond, waffle crisp, and caramel. Each bar of chocolate is sold for a dollar each, and half of the proceeds from each box goes to fund NaGISA supplies and events. Some of our students who will be traveling to Europe in the summer of 2019 will have their proceeds go towards funding for that trip. 

One of the events that the proceeds will go towards is the trip to the University of Florida. On this trip, students will be learning more about what to do and why they do what they do on Collection and Analysis days. They will also work on research skills. They will participate in a larger version of what they are used to from Analysis day. This trip will take place on February 9-11, 2018.

Hello, members of NaGISA. We are glad to see many returning faces and many new ones as well. The NaGISA Externs are excited for this new year. We are currently getting ready for this year's fall collection, which will take place on October 4th and 5th. 

We would like to introduce the new Externs for this school year.
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• Head Extern and Head of Training: Hannah Clayton
• Head of Dive: Tatum Knowles
• Head of Collection: Aidan Dubay
• Head of Analysis: Olivia Tuckey
• Assistant Dive Coordinator: David Ott
• Head of Fundraising and Outreach: Lauren Kelly
• Webmaster: Michael Dunn

We are so excited to work with everyone this year. Let's make this another great year of NaGISA!

The Externs are very excited this week. The Collection and Analysis will take place on the 28 and 29 of April, this Thursday and Friday. Furthermore, the ARMS Unit Dive Team will be reinstalling the ARMS Units we examined in the fall. Check back for more updates from the team this week. Our photographers will be working very hard in order to showcase this week's Analysis.