About

The Residential Marine Science Class at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL), Alabama's state marine education and research center on Dauphin Island in Mobile Bay, is a four-week residential course for rising 9th–12th graders. The 2026 session runs June 14–July 10, with the application window open January 5–April 1, 2026, and admission decisions released in late April or early May. This is a long-running program — only 30 students are admitted each summer, with acceptance based on interests, an application essay, and academics.

Over more than 160 supervised academic hours, students move through marine ecology, invertebrate zoology, marine vertebrates, plankton biology, barrier island ecology, marine geology, marine technology, ocean chemistry, and physical oceanography — via fieldwork, lab investigations, off-campus field trips, research projects, oral presentations, and written and practical exams. Most participants take the full survey course, but the Quackenbush Research Scholarship recipient works individually with DISL research scientist Dr. Jeffrey Krause on a plankton ecology research project, giving at least one student each cohort a genuine individual-mentorship track within the broader class.

The program costs $3,000, which covers Sea Lab dormitory housing, cafeteria meals, and after-hours supervision by residential counselors — a notably low per-week rate for a fully residential four-week marine science program. Alabama public school students can apply the course toward science elective credit (including as a required third or fourth science course, with prior school approval); out-of-state and private-school students are encouraged to seek credit through their own institutions. Students may also elect to pay separate University of West Alabama fees for 1 undergraduate biology credit. Five named scholarships cover full tuition for qualifying students: the Jenny Cook Memorial Scholarship (requires a short video submission), the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium Scholarship (for AL/MS students addressing a coastal or environmental problem), a DISL Foundation need-based scholarship, two Seamen's Foundation Maritime Industry scholarships (AL students with financial need interested in maritime careers), and the Quackenbush Research Scholarship described above.

For a student who wants a genuine survey of marine science disciplines — not a single-topic deep dive, but broad, rigorous exposure to ecology, oceanography, and lab technique before committing to a major — this is one of the most cost-effective four-week residential marine science programs available, and its five-scholarship structure means cost barriers can be substantially reduced for the right applicant. It is not built for a student who already knows they want individual faculty-mentored original research (only the single Quackenbush recipient gets that track); a student set on that model should look instead at something like The Island School or a dedicated research-placement program.