Six pre-service middle school science teachers participated in COSEE Florida's Research Experience Pre-service Teachers (REPT) program. For six weeks, REPT interns conducted a variety of experiments alongside research scientists at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Ocean Research & Conservation Association, and the Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce. As part of their research experience, they produced short videos addressing common misconceptions in science, including such topics as:
- Scientists are boring lab rats
- Science does not involve creativity
- Science experiments answer questions in clear, concrete ways
Florida Aquatic Science Heroes (FLASH) is a short video describing the work of a Florida-based ocean scientist, their research, and its relevance to a broader community.
In Making Water Pollution Visible, Dr. Edie Widder describes her passion to improve water quality in Florida's Indian River Lagoon and how the technology that she has developed can be applied to improve water quality throughout the world.
01.25.2010
The Northwest Center for Sustainable Resources (NCSR) is a national resource center for curriculum products supporting undergraduate natural resource disciplines. The Center is supported by the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program.
Recently NCSR has completed a comprehensive series of curriculum modules on Marine Fisheries. The Marine Fisheries Series consists of nine modules covering the background, current status, causes for decline, management approaches and anticipated future of this vital resource. The marine fisheries modules are most appropriate for inclusion in undergraduate courses such as Environmental Science, Introduction to Natural Resources, Marine Biology, Introduction to Fisheries and Fisheries Management. Parts of the modules also have application in courses with a broader scope such as General Ecology and General Biology and for informal science education audiences.
The Marine Fisheries modules as well as other curriculum products can be downloaded from or ordered in hardcopy and on CDs through the NCSR website.
Cover Photo: Visual fish survey in Dry Tortugas Ecological Reserve - Jiangang Luo/Marine PhotobankMORE >>
Strang, C., Decharon, A., & Schoedinger, S. (2007). Can you be science literate without being ocean literate? Current: The Journal of Marine Education, 23(1), 7-9.
The Ocean Literacy Campaign is changing the way educators and the public think about ocean sciences education: teaching ocean sciences is not just enrichment, but is essential to science literacy. Read about how the Ocean Literacy Campaign is bringing about a paradigm shift in the way educators and the public think about Ocean Sciences Education.
Strang, C., Dorph, R., & Halversen, C. (2005). Communicating ocean sciences: a course that improves education & public outreach. Paper presented at the Marine Technology Society Conference.
Together educators and ocean scientists have developed and teach a university course entitled Communicating Ocean Sciences that is now being taught in several institutions of higher education nationwide. The course is designed for undergraduate and graduate science students interested in improving their ability to communicate about complex science concepts. This paper focuses on the content, outcomes, and potential of the Communicating Ocean Sciences course.
This guide provides basic information for scientists who wish to engage in education and public outreach (EPO). Engaging in EPO can be an excellent way to address funding agencies’ requirements that proponents articulate the broader societal value of their research.
In this guide, EPO refers broadly to efforts to increase awareness and understanding of science. Audiences targeted by EPO can include students, teachers, children, adults, and just about any conceivable subset of these (e.g., economically disadvantaged youth, adult education instructors, museum visitors, parents, newspaper readers, high school students). Whether you are preparing a proposal or looking for tips to implement EPO effectively, this guide can help you recognize and contribute to high-quality EPO.
Support for this project comes from the National Science Foundation’s Division of Ocean Science’s Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence (COSEE) and from the authors’ respective institutions. Funding to publish the guide was provided to TOS through a grant from the National Science Foundation. Single copies of the guide are available by writing to info@tos.org.
