More than 200 undergraduate students from around the country get their feet wet in the field of marine science each summer at the Shoals Marine Laboratory on Appledore Island. The students usually take between one and three of the 20 to 30 courses offered each season, which range from field marine biology and ecology to climates and ecosystems, ornithology and oceanography.

"The lab probably has more faculty devoted to undergraduate education than anywhere in the country," says Art Borror, a UNH professor emeritus of zoology, who has taught there since the mid-1970s, shortly after Cornell and UNH jointly founded the lab. "I think it's the best program of its kind in the country; it'd be among anyone's top four in the world."

Students spend about half their day in the field, studying the marine animals, plants and birds, or taking voyages around the isles in the lab's research boat. They also spend time in the laboratory, examining living specimens, and they listen to lectures on a wide range of topics in the evenings.

"Students are challenged to think about things. They're energized to ask questions," Borror says. "There's a real undergraduate flavor to the place -- a lot of enthusiasm -- but also a lot of intensive research."

Located on Appledore Island in the Gulf of Maine, the lab invites students into a world inhabited by dozens of species of native and migratory birds and, in its intertidal zone, an amazing diversity of marine plants and animals.

"Part of the distinctiveness of the isles is that they are out here by themselves, and remain relatively unspoiled," Borror says. "It's a good place to introduce students to marine science, so they can make decisions about what they'd like to do early in their (college) career."