Unit 5: Oceans in Protection: Marine Protected Areas
MICHELLE KINZEL, Southwestern College; Astrid Schnetzer, North Carolina State University; Cara Thompson, Arizona State University at the West Campus
Students will review current ocean pressures related to overfishing and human impacts on ocean ecosystems. By examining data collected in relation to the presence of marine reserves, students will explore long-term ...

Unit 3: Oceans As Habitat: Sustaining Life in the Ocean
MICHELLE KINZEL, Southwestern College; Astrid Schnetzer, North Carolina State University; Cara Thompson, Arizona State University at the West Campus
Students will be able to identify the functional roles that organisms play in ocean ecosystems. How do human-induced changes in ocean conditions affect biodiversity, and thereby the health and resilience of a coral ...

Unit 6: Ocean Preservation: Sustaining Our Oceanic Resources
MICHELLE KINZEL, Southwestern College; Astrid Schnetzer, North Carolina State University; Cara Thompson, Arizona State University at the West Campus
Students are introduced to the concept of geoengineering, "the deliberate large-scale intervention in the Earth's climate system, in order to moderate global warming" (The Royal Society). The goal is ...

Unit 4: Oceans In Peril: Pressures on Ocean Ecosystems
MICHELLE KINZEL, Southwestern College; Astrid Schnetzer, North Carolina State University; Cara Thompson, Arizona State University at the West Campus
Students will read and summarize an article that details scientific studies on behavioral changes of gray whales. Discussed are their feeding behavior, migratory behavior, and breeding patterns in the Pacific. ...

Earth's Climate System
Beverly Owens, Cleveland Early College High School; Molly Ludwick, Kings Mountain Middle School
This activity will help students to identify and analyze factors contributing to Earth's climate systems.

Using Ocean Plastic Research to Increase Student Engagement and Persistence in Biology
Ana Maria Barral, National University
The Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program (HSI Program) aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims. This project at National University will advance the aims of the HSI Program by adding research experiences to undergraduate biology courses. Through a collaboration with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, this project incorporates course-based undergraduate research (CURE) biology courses for biology majors and for non-majors. The research topics focuses on plastic pollution in the ocean, particularly the microbial populations attached to floating plastic. The CURE is modular and can be adapted for undergraduate courses of different levels. In addition, a virtual adaptation was implemented during the Covid-19 epidemic lockdown phase. A version of the CURE designed for microbiology courses uses the established Tiny Earth methodology to isolate antibiotic producing bacteria from plastic debris.

Offshore wind or offshore oil?
Noah Snyder, Boston College
An introductory environmental science project tasking students with comparing offshore oil and wind power development.

Coastal Erosion Online Discussion
Sheila Roberts, Bowling Green State University-Main Campus
This assignment is designed to get students to see the application of geology to a local problem, coastal erosion along the Lake Erie shoreline. I think the strength of this assignment is that many of the students ...

Grocery Store Survey of Aquaculture Products
Susan Richardson, Florida Atlantic University
Students work in pairs to survey seafood items sold in local grocery stores or fish markets, recording whether items are farm-raised or wild caught, fresh, frozen or preserved, as well as country of origin. ...

Sea Ice Extension for the Earth as a System Learning Activity
Gary Randolph, GLOBE
The purpose is to identify global patterns and connections in environmental data contained in the GLOBE Earth Systems Poster; to connect observations made within the Earth Systems Poster to data and information at ...