For Swannie Chan, a fourth-year geography student who really wanted field experience, the choice was clear: “Do I want to go to Hawaii or Black Creek Village? It was a no brainer.”

In mid-August, Chan, Zoe Davis, a fourth-year environmental science student, and 16 other 91��ɫ undergraduates packed their swimming suits and hiking boots and flew to Honolulu then on to Maui. For the next eight days, they went all over the island on excursions led by geography Professors Kathy Young and Peter Vandergeest, and graduate assistant Jane Assini.

Left: Zoe Davis collecting data on the Maui coast. Photo by Dawn Ho.

Blue skies, brilliant stars and tropical heat tempered by gentle ocean breezes made for an idyllic visit – perfect for doing the research they’d come to do. For undergraduates used to textbook learning and case studies, this experience was like reality TV. “I thought it would be like “Lost”,” said Chan. Maui residents Woody Harrelson and Willie Nelson eluded them, but they came home three credits richer, $3,000 poorer, keener than ever and a little changed.

For geographers, the appeal of Maui is its diverse topography. Less urbanized than Oahu but still a magnet for celebrities drawn to its sand and surf, the island features everything from desert to tropical rainforest, and volcanoes to vast beaches. On one coast, giant waves draw the world’s most fanatic surfers, on the other, coral reefs lure snorkellers to an underwater paradise. There is ample evidence of climate change – a rising sea and persistent drought – and tourism has affected the island’s culture and environment.

What a motherlode of research possibilities. The human geographers, like Chan, could study the effect of tourism on the culture. The physical geographers, like Davis (she's in the physical stream of environmental science), could analyze data they collected on beach erosion, air temperature, water quality and quantity, and wind energy.

Based in South Kihei on the southwest coast, the students piled into three vans for daily excursions and field trips to all corners of the island.

Right: Sunrise above the clouds on Mount Haleakala. Photo by Kathy Young.

“I put my research cap on when I left and actually liked doing the trip as a geographer,” said Chan, who’s travelled the world as a tourist.

The students studied beach erosion on the north and west shores, and learned about volcanoes and lava flows on a trip to Mount Haleakala, one of two volcanoes on Maui. Kathy Young woke them at 2am one morning for a bike excursion up the volcano. Along the way, they measured temperature, and wind and water quality, surfacing above the clouds in time to see the sun rise. They endured hours over rough roads to remote Hana and Lahaina to visit tropical rain forest and desert, and enjoyed a traditional luau celebration. They tasted medicinal plants in botanical gardens, saw sugar cane plantations, visited a taro farm and took an ecotour snorkelling around coral reef. “The water was so clear, I felt like I was watching TV,” said Chan. “It was one of the highlights of the trip.”

Rangers took them into Ahihi-Kinau Natural Area Reserve, 90 per cent of which is off limits to the public. This fact inspired Chan’s project – a survey of people in nearby Wailea about their knowledge of and opinion of restricted access to the reserve, a sacred Hawaiian heritage site bordering a pristine coral reef.

Davis, on the other hand, was investigating the mitigating influence of coral reefs on beach erosion and, by extension, the potential of rock walls to prevent this erosion. “It was such an amazing opportunity to be in the field on site designing my own project, analyzing my own data. There is nothing like doing your own work. You never get this experience in the classroom.”

Left: Swannie Chan interviews Ranger Joe.

For an environmental science student such as Davis, “this trip was a test to see if I could love research and hack it in the field.” After a three-and-a-half-hour trek 3,000 metres up the side of a cinder cone, getting up at 2am to see sunrise from the top of a volcano, and lugging heavy equipment then improvising when it broke, she thinks she could.

Each student had to do an individual project and a group project. “We got a taste of so many different kinds of research,” said Davis. “It can change your career. I realized if you work hard you can do some amazing things. It changed my trajectory, but not my direction.” Now she’s dreaming of doing research in the Arctic.

“The trip was once in a lifetime,” says Chan, who is majoring in geography and finishing an education degree at the same time. She intends to stick to her plans to teach primary or junior school. The Scarborough resident tried passionfruit and guava for the first time, was amazed at the brilliant night sky and loved spending every day outside. “Being able to experience nature like I did in Hawaii is something I want to take into the classroom.”

“Hawaii was a really cool trip,” says Young. “I learned so much and I think the kids were all really energized by it.”

Right: Sliding Sand Trail, Mount Haleakala. Photo by Kathy Young.

The advanced field course in physical geography is brand new. It was funded with $15,000 from the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. If Young can get more funding, next year she hopes to take geography students to another, though less balmy, volcanic island – Iceland.

By Martha Tancock, YFile contributing writer.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

The post Geography students take first-ever research field trip to Maui appeared first on UAP 2026-30.

Denning will be one of four co-presenters appearing in six one-hour-long episodes of the show "Beast Legends" which will involve her “romping around the world to study tales of legendary creatures.” The information gathered is then brought to the show's Beast Lab, where the creature is created in 3-D computer imagery before being unleashed in the modern world. “Beast Legends” is produced by Yap Films and will premiere on beginning tomorrow at 10pm and running for six weeks. In the fall, the series will air on Syfy.

Left: Kathryn Denning with the skull of an Australopithecus

As one of the show's “beast seekers”, Denning found herself scuba diving in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Fiji with dozens of bull sharks – one of the top three shark species prone to attacking humans – in search of clues to the Fijian shark god Dakuwaqa. Despite the risk of being attacked, she dove with locals without the use of a shark cage. She also tracked stories of the Navajo bird monster in New Mexico, and in France she recorded a recent eyewitness account by a sailor whose boat had been attacked by a giant squid, evoking the medieval tale of the kraken, a fierce multi-tentacled sea monster thought to crush ships and scoop men from ship decks.

The show poses questions like: If these beasts were here today, what would they be doing or eating and where would they be living? says Denning. “Then we bring the data together and create the beast as it would look and act if it was here today.” Bringing the ancient into the present and understanding the linkages between the two is a particular interest of Denning’s, which, to her delight, she got to exercise while on assignment. "I'm interested in how people think of the ancient world and how that gets used in the modern world." She also had the opportunity to explore what she calls a highly innovative yet traditional culture by staying with Fijians in their homes while shooting. She got to experience their culture first-hand and better understand their rapidly changing religious beliefs and how those connect with modern phenomena like ecotourism.ec

The local people believe the Fijian shark god, a former chief who became a god after his death, protects and watches over them. Dakuwaqa not only sees all, but can change shape at will, although his most prominent shape is that of a bull shark. In recent years, a local Fijian operation began regularly diving down to feed the bull sharks by hand without cages to allow spectators to see the animals barrier-free. “I got an astoundingly close look at these beautiful, majestic killing machines,” says Denning. The local shark-feeding specialists have no fear of being attacked. In fact, Denning says, “they have named many individual sharks, and in turn, the sharks seem to recognize these individual humans by smell.” So far there have been no incidents in 15 years of feedings.

Right: Kathryn Denning when she's not chasing legendary beasts

“Some of the beast legends we explored are very old, some more recent. There are many different versions of these myths and they evoke very different images for different people and in different regions,” says Denning. “That’s the really interesting part, the variations from region to region. What the beast does in the stories speaks more to the culture that believes in it than to the beast itself.” These ancient societies had an encyclopedic knowledge of their natural environment but didn’t necessarily know what was over the distant ridge, and that could lead to unexplained tales of beasts.

At the same time, there is still much “we don’t know about the sea” and “there’s a tremendous delight in thinking we haven’t civilized the whole world yet.” That there might actually be beasts out there that humans haven't gotten a hold of yet. “The idea that there are still things that elude us is delicious,” she says.

Denning is joined on the show by Scott Edwards, a professor of organismic and evolutionary biology and curator of ornithology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University; Stephen Leonard, an adventurer and veterinary surgeon based in Bristol, England; and Francis Manapul, a Philippines-born, Toronto-based comic book artist. Together they explored the remote jungles of Vietnam looking for the Wildman, a giant, hairy, bloodthirsty beast similar to Bigfoot, and the Navajo lands of New Mexico for a giant bird predator said to be the size of a small plane. They travelled to Mongolia’s Altai Mountains searching for the griffin, a massive, legendary creature with the head of an eagle, razor-sharp talons and the body of a lion. They also ventured deep into the primeval forests of Poland to find the truth behind ancient legends of a terrifying, fire-breathing dragon known as Smok.

“When we look at these things that seem exotic, they help us to understand ourselves and other cultures better at the end of the day,” says Denning. She admits it's a little different from some of her other academic work at 91��ɫ, although she was also a part of a documentary that aired in 2007 that looked at the natural history and folklore of vampires. "Tales of the undead are ubiquitous, ancient and always changing," she says, similar to tales about fantastical beasts. Denning hopes viewers of "Beast Legends" will gain a better understanding of animals in their natural environment, as well as other cultures.

Is there any truth to the legends behind these beasts? You’ll have to watch the show to find out.

For more information, visit the "" Web site. The first episode will be the search for the Wildman, followed by the kraken, Dakuwaqa, the griffin, the Navajo bird monster and, in the final episode, Smok the dragon.

The series was covered by the and July 7 via the Canwest News Service:

This is the time of year when young ’uns and oldsters alike gather around the campfire and swap ghost stories – “Bloody bones behind the barn!” – and other tall tales, wrote Canwest News Service July 7. The mythological creatures of the subconscious have a literature all their own. And yet, as the engaging and timely docuseries “Beast Legends” reminds us, in some cultures around the world, mythical beings are not just imaginary, but are believed to exist.

“Beast Legends”, a kind of “Ghost Hunters” for the Beowulf set, follows an eclectic group of experts in their field to far-flung corners of the earth, from the rain-soaked jungles of Vietnam to the mountains of Mongolia.

The experts include 91��ɫ anthropologist Kathryn Denning, a professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

For more information about when the show will be aired, visit the Web site.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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