On August 18, 19, 21, and 22,  Dr. Florian Barton Reyda from SUNY Oneonta gave a summer intensive class,  Parasitology.
The class was held online. He commented on the class as follows.

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First, it would not have been possible without the very good and capable assistance of the teaching assistant Sophie Limlingan. For the class to run smoothly Sophie had to do many things, including set up a teaching space 20 minutes away from the normal location! That was a lot of work. Thanks so much to Sophie!

The class was fun. The students showed a genuine interest in the different parasites that we discussed. 

During paper discussions, students were shy at first, but then little by little everyone contributed to the discussion with comments. 

For the class I shipped slideboxes containing sets of study specimens that the students used as the basis for their laboratory exercises. They were assigned to draw several of the parasites. The drawings were really excellent and well-detailed. 

Students seemed to really enjoy the fish dissections. Again, this would not have been possible without the on-site help of Sophie. Sophie demonstrated to each of the students how to begin the fish dissection. And she helped them as they progressed with the dissection, examining various organs of the mackerel. It made me very happy that every student was able to find at least one species of parasite during their fish dissections. They seemed to be excited to make these discoveries, and I appreciated their genuine curiosity. 

Overall, they were a great group of students to work with. Respectful, curious, and hard-working. I believe that there is at least one future parasitologist among the group! 

Thanks for this opportunity,

Sincerely,

Florian

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One student who had taken the class gave her impressions.

(Q1.) Why did you take this parasitology class?

- At Tokyo Metropolitan University, parasitology classes are not usually offered. A few years ago, I saw news of Anisakis, and a video of parasitic nematodes that are several times longer than their hosts, and I became really interested in learning more about them.

Q2.) How was the fish dissection in the class? Did you find any parasites?

- Yes, I was able to observe some parasites. I dissected a horse mackerel that I got from the supermarket and found one parasite in the gills and 7–8 parasites in the small intestine.

We performed the dissection at the end of the class, and I was surprised to see that there were more parasites than I had expected. With the help of the instructor and TA in identifying them, I was able to find parasites that we had learned about in class. It was really enjoyable to see the knowledge we had studied being applied in practice and to actually handle the parasites myself.