Nick Reynolds

nreynolds@ithacajournal.com | @IJCityWatch

For too long, the most in-depth means of studying sharks has been being zipped up in a wetsuit inside a steel cage. This Shark Week, a new online initiative involving Cornell University wants to change that.

Cornell, in collaboration with the University of Queensland, will launch a free, massive open online course on the primal predators this summer during the Discovery Channel’s famed Shark Week, June 26 to July 3.

The syllabus, which includes a wide array of topics taught by five Cornell professors and the University of Queensland’s Ian Tibbets, will educate participants in new technological advances that have brought sharks from the depths and into the spotlight of the digital age, as well as facts about the feared — and endangered — creatures.

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“An explosion of new research and technologies such as satellite tagging and CT scanning are helping researchers advance our knowledge of sharks at an unprecedented rate,” William Bemis, Cornell professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, stated in a news release. “The technology has been integrated so much that you can now follow some sharks on Twitter, which participants will learn about in the course.”

The course will last four weeks. Registration can be done online, and enrollment in the course is integrated through social media such as Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus. To learn more about the course, visit edx.org/course/sharks-global-biodiversity-biology-cornellx-uqx-bioee101x#!

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