Projects & training for Research Assistants
Unlike most of the other sites, the training courses and Research Assistant projects in Egypt are combined into one option consisting of 3 weeks in the Sinai desert and 1 week on the marine side. This option attracts 20 credits from the University of Nottingham, which can be translated into credits for participants from other universities outside the UK (please email nottinghamcredits@opwall.com for details of how the credits could apply in your university).

ES101 St Katherine biodiversity atlas project
The expedition starts after Sunday lunch with short lectures on an introduction to the Sinai followed by field safety and medical talks. Over the next 3 days you will climb Mt Sinai and will receive lectures on arid region ecology and the survey techniques to be used. On the Wednesday morning the group will either trek or drive into the desert for a 9 day survey designed to cover as many as possible of the 10km x 10m squares that still need survey effort. The survey is an amazing opportunity to see some of the most spectacular scenery and wildlife in Egypt. The groups will be living in a temporary Bedouin camps and will be surveying in small teams for plants from quadrat surveys, transect surveys for birds and reptiles, assessing mammal usage from spoor and scat and mist netting for bats on mobile night time surveys.

At the end of 9 days in the desert the teams will return to Fox Camp in St Katherine, and will be split into those doing different training course options. One option is to do a DNA extraction course using samples collected during the survey . Volunteers on this course will be trained in the techniques of extracting and purifying the DNA, amplifying it with specific primers using PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and then visualising the results using electrophoresis.

A second option is to do a course on how to display biodiversity data spatially using GIS . This course also gives an introduction into using environmental data (rainfall, altitude, temperature, soil types, habitat etc) to predict the distribution of species using GIS techniques.

The third option is a scientific wildlife  illustration course.

In the final week the group move to Nuweiba where they will spend a week learning to dive (ED005), or, if already qualified or not wishing to dive, will complete a reef ecology course (ED006). The dive course will train students up to PADI Open Water level. This is the internationally recognised entry level qualification for SCUBA diving, and the course consists of theory work, confined water training (conducted just off shore in the shallows) and at least 4 Open Water dives. The reef ecology course (for those already dive trained or those who would prefer to snorkel) consists of daily lectures and in-water practicals (diving or snorkelling). The course is designed to give a comprehensive introduction to the marine ecology of this part of the world - training participants in identification of corals, fish, and invertebrates.