9,659 research outputs found
The oceanography classroom: How to Run Amok — Or Is It a MOOC?
No full textAn email comes through from my Head of Department: "Simon, are you getting involved in the Exploring Our Ocean MOOC this year? You don't want to miss out!" I try to figure out whether this is a typo and also what it is that I don't want to miss out on. Has her cap-lock key got stuck? What letters are close to M, O, and C that she actually meant to type? Another email grabs my attention, and I decide I have too much to do to worry about decoding an email, which is either mistyped or in a hitherto unseen language. A week later as I walk down the corridor, there it is again. A bright and engaging poster with images of the deep ocean proclaims: "The University of Southampton MOOC on Exploring Our Ocean goes live in October 2014, register today—don't miss out!" As I study the poster, a passing student asks if I am starring in the MOOC this time around—he was surprised I wasn't involved in last year's. Last year's? I suddenly feel like someone who fell asleep in the 1980s comfortable with the fax, VHS tapes, and a mobile phone that occasionally made phone calls, and woke up 20 years later to discover emails, online movies, and the iPhone
From rubber ducks to ocean gyres: book reviewed - Flotsametrics and the Floating World: How One Man's Obsession with Runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionized Ocean Science by Curtis Ebbesmeyer & Eric Scigliano, HarperCollins, 2009. 304pp.
No full textThe oceanography classroom: Don't be too critical in thinking about our students' abilities
No full textFirst paragraph.I am not one who is easily led or swayed. I am stubborn to the point that if someone tells me to do one thing, I will probably do the opposite. A dogmatic or independent thinker? My wife would say the first. Come to think of it, so would my head of faculty. So when the editor suggested that I consider writing a column looking at how to get university students to think critically, I thought—no, I'm not doing that. Then, I thought more critically, and realized that dogmatism (based on a priori assumption rather than empirical evidence) is the antithesis of critical thinking. Enough rhetoric. This column is, after all, about science education in oceanography and not an impalpable discursion into the English language
The oceanography classroom: E-Learning: Is It All It’s Hyped Up To Be?
No full textThe year is 1981. An undergraduate is thumbing though volume 12 of Oceanic Abstracts for 1975 in the quiet of the university library. Only another four years of abstract indexes to go and, by tomorrow, he should have all he needs for his dissertation on storm surges in the North Atlantic. All that remains is to work through the abstracts, decide which papers are worth reading in full, find them somewhere in the library (hopefully), and he will be set up to start writing in the next week or so. It is amazing that such a thing exists—a journal of oceanographic journals—and he wonders how anyone could have managed without such a resource in the past
A Public Perception of Our Ocean
No full textAs educators, we spend much of our time working with students explaining the complexities of the ocean system. Many of us work with schools to encourage young budding scientists to head seaward, we deliver public lectures for the science-hungry masses, and present ocean-related stories in the media. These aspects of our role as science educators have been covered in recent years in my humble pages of this august journal, but what has become clear to me is a public misconception of our ocean. This is partly due to a lack of appreciation of its enormity and a misguided belief that humankind has everything under control
Time for Time Series
No full textIn this issue of Oceanography, Holliday and Cunningham (2013) extol the significance of long-term data sets in understanding the marine environment and, in particular, climate change. The 1950s were the years of exploration, dividing the ocean up into bite-sized chunks to explore as part of the International Geophysical Year(s). The 1960s and '70s were the technological years, or at least the period when we moved from mercury thermometers and clockwork current meters to advanced electronics in the ocean. The 1980s and '90s were the big program years, tackling everything from world ocean circulation to the North Sea, though not necessarily fully resolving them. Throughout this long line of programs there have been few long time series. As Holliday and Cunningham point out, the 1990s were nearly the end of the line—quite literally—for the Ellett Line, which only survived through dogged determination and support from the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE). There are several other long-term measurement campaigns that rely heavily on individuals keeping them alive, often by fitting in with other higher-profile programs. The Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT), the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) tracks of the Sir Alistar Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science (SAHFOS), and the moorings of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation are but a few of them. The first two of these programs make use of existing research ship programs or commercial routes to gather valuable data
The Ocean in Schools
No full textThey say that, as you get older, your ability to absorb new information diminishes and your capacity to hold old information dwindles. Looking back over past issues of Oceanography, I realized that dementia has well and truly set in for me. A couple of years ago, I wrote about communicating with the public, with a focus on media. In the same article, I promised a follow on in my next missive on the subject of outreach in schools, whose pupils are the biggest absorbers of information and ideas. Although many of us focus on university students in our teaching, we should remember that no age is too young to start a noble education in ocean science
The oceanography classroom: Why Do Today What Will Be Even Better Tomorrow?
No full textThis edition of The Oceanography Classroom was to be on a topic I have been mulling over for the past two editions now. However, as I delivered my previous article perilously close to the print deadline, the editor suggested, tongue in cheek, that I should do an article on procrastination. The suggestion infiltrated my thoughts, and I have been procrastinating over which to run with ever since
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