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A Partnership to Assemble "An Introduction to Our Dynamic Ocean" Course - 09.01.2008
The goal of this proposed new collaboration between COSEE Coastal Trends and Queen Anne's County Public School (QACPS) district is to use the Ocean Literacy: Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts as the foundation for formalizing a semester-long entry level secondary school ocean science course.
We propose a partnership between COSEE Coastal Trends, housed at an ocean research institution (University of Maryland, Center of Environmental Science, Horn Point Laboratory) and QACPS in rural coastal MD. Curriculum team members will assemble an entry level Ocean Science course entitled An Introduction to Our Dynamic Ocean from existing lessons designed to utilize real-time and near real-time data and scientific discoveries. The course will be pilot-tested by teachers in Queen Anne's County, Maryland and throughout the COSEE Coastal Trends region (MD, DE, and VA). Once published, it will be disseminated as a model for other school systems in Maryland and the COSEE Network.
In making this an active course based on ocean research and exploration, we will engage students in learning about the ocean and its impact on Earth's processes. Such newly gained knowledge directly answers the call for better public understanding of the ocean and its role in our lives. Integrating ocean research and exploration into the course will assure a connection to authentic science. Rigorous assessment and evaluation of the course development process and the course curriculum will result in both a successful partnership between a scientific and an education entity, and a model ocean science course for entry level secondary science students.
By targeting all students as they enter secondary school, this course will reach out to students underrepresented in the sciences. Increasing ocean science literacy among this population will support the community-wide goal of increasing ocean science literacy in the general public. The influence of this project will be expanded by dissemination of the assembled, pilot-tested, refined and formalized course to other school districts in the Mid-Atlantic region and throughout the COSEE network.
Source: NSF Award Abstract #0827805
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