THE COURSE
This course is about Seven Essential Principals of Marine Science
1. The Earth has one big ocean with many features.
2. The ocean and life in the ocean shape the features of the Earth.
3. The ocean is a major influence on weather and climate.
4. The ocean makes the Earth habitable.
5. The ocean supports a great diversity of life and ecosystems.
6. The ocean and humans are inextricably interconnected.
7. The ocean is largely unexplored.
This Marine Science class is organized into four main parts.
A. Unit 1: History and Principles of Marine Science:
This unit introduces students to Marine Science and other related fields.
Also, included are topics concerning history, scientific method, seafloor
spreading, tsunamis, hydrothermal vents and island/volcano formation.
B. Unit 2: Chemical and Physical Features of the World Oceans:
This includes a survey of all water sources on Earth, salinity, temperature,
density dissolved gas, and pressure within the ocean and their
interdependencies, hurricane formation, El Nino, current patterns, and tidal
changes.
Oceanography: the Physics and the Physical of the Ocean
Oceanography ppt/notes
Oceans: where in the world
Currents: where in the world
Tides: How and Why.
What is water LAB – Properties of water ppt/notes
Mapping the ocean floor
Thermocline /current activity
C. Unit 3: Life in the Marine Environment:
The third section consists of the nature of life and the sea.
A review of cellular organization and life requirements begins this unit, followed
by adaptive measures of animals in the sea and classification.
Invertibrates
Sponges,
Cnideria (jellyfish),
Echinoderms (starfish and urchins) – Dissection?
Protists (a myriad of plankton), Plankton model building?
Moluscs,
Crustaceans
A review of the phyla
Vertibrates
Fish – three kinds. Shark/dogfish dissection?
Marine Mammals – Evolutionary History
Marine Plants
Marine Microbes,
An overview of the various marine habitats (Biomes) such as: Intertidal zones,
estuaries, coral reefs, kelp forest, deep sea and open waters or epipelagic
regions Polar regions Ocean depths, Shorelines are discussed.
D. Unit 4: The Ocean and Human Affairs:
The fourth area a study of this class will demonstrate ways that humans interact
with the world ocean.
This includes natural resources available, economic and environmental impact
via commercial usage as well as recreational, cultural development in and
around and the sea, career development and real time data production, coastal
management, safety, and human’s pollution of oil, sewage, synthetic chemicals,
heavy metals, thermal, and solid waste and its negative impact and
repercussions within our ocean.
THE SPRING COURSE-PACING GUIDE
Unit 1 History and Principles of Marine Science
Unit 2 Chemical and Physical Features of the
World Oceans
Unit 3 Life in the Marine Environment
Unit 4 The Ocean and Human Affairs
4.5 weeks
4.5 weeks
Jan-Feb
March
4.5 weeks
4.5 weeks
April-May
May-June