Journey millions of years back in time with Scripps Institutions' Dr. Richard Norris as he describes the latest findings from a recent Ocean Drilling Program Cruise.Ę(55 minutes)

Join Charles Kennel, the Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography in a fascinating review of how scientific understanding of the Aurora Borealis has developed, from the beginning of the scientific rEvolution to the modern space age. (49 minutes)

Join Scripps Institutions' John Orcutt as he describes how cutting edge technology will allow Scripps to establish a permanent presence in the oceans in support of scientific research. (46 minutes)

How do organisms survive the extreme pressures and temperatures of the ocean abyss? Join Dr. Doug Bartlett as he describes genomics research to understand how deep sea Bacteria have adapted to these extremes, and how this may lay the groundwork for biotechnology using deep sea Bacterial genes. (59 minutes)

Join UCSD's Kim Prather to find out about the latest developments in research under way at UCSD to help clean up the air in California. (56 minutes)

How will researchers harness the genetic potential of marine organisms? Join Dr. Terry Gaasterland as she describes how scientists at the new Scripps Genome Center are pioneering research in marine genomes. (54 minutes)

Join Fred Fisher, co-inventor of FLIP, or Floating Instrument Platform as he shares a unique look at this strange research vessel's rich history. (37 minutes)

This game is suitable for play both within and outside of the classroom, and although designed for children ages 9-13, it offers a fun, learning opportunity for the entire family. In addition to being a game, it is an eye-catching poster showing continents, oceans and all of the major ocean currents. On the reverse, there are black and white educational activities designed to be reproduced directly from the poster for use in the classroom.

This is a semester-long research project that I use to provide students with the opportunity to design a class-wide collaborative research project in connection with a local community partner.

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In this lab students explore data for examining both surface and deep ocean circulation. It is done in a lab setting and usually takes ~2.5 hours.

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This 8-page assignment on the topic of ocean tides is intended to be completed by students alone or in small groups during class (with the possible exception of the last page which requires access to the internet) with the instructor available for help or assistance. It begins by introducing relevant vocabulary and leads students through examples of different tidal patterns. Instructors should make sure that the students have answered these first four pages correctly before moving on to the more challenging scenarios in which students are asked to analyze and make interpretations.

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In this activity students investigate tidal phenomena by exploring water level observational (or predicted tidal) data from several locations around the world that provide examples of semi-diurnal, diurnal, and mixed tides. Students are asked to identify patterns of variability and differences among the sites on time scales of just a few days and over a period of a couple months. The activity is designed more to get students thinking about tides, asking questions about the causes of tidal variations, and thinking about ways to answer these questions, as opposed to providing an explanation of tidal processes. The activity leads to a body of observations that generate numerous questions about tides. The goal is to capture student's interest before spending subsequent class time developing a conceptual/theoretical model of how tides work.

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Join Scripps physical oceanographer Clint Winant as he describes this complex interface between the land and sea. Learn how he and his colleagues are providing insight into how human activities can impair this fragile ecosystem. (54 minutes)

Part 1: Students measure the salinity of samples using a refractometer, and consider the units and density of these values. Part 2: Students apply concepts and reinforce what they've learned about salinity and the water cycle to interpret a salinity contour map of a transect of the Pacific Ocean using WOCE data. Another goal is to familiarize students with using contour graphs of ocean data, in general.

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About every two weeks I ask each student in my introductory course to
write brief responses to questions I pose to them. They write these in
an e-Journal, a part of the blog function of BlackBoard. My laboratory
instructor and I use their responses to learn about the background and
interests of students in the class, to assess how well they are
learning, to determine if group work is going well, and to give us
ideas for improving the course.

The following two eJournal question sets are part of a course, Marine Environmental
Geology, a non-majors science course that has a significant service
learning component. The semester long service learning projects that
accompany this course require constant monitoring.

Assessing Service Learning Project Work The set of questions just below
is designed to have students think outside the group context about what
concrete steps need to be done to finish the work of their service
learning project. We read these and respond very quickly, supporting
good ideas. During the following week we encourage each group to come
together and share what they have written in Part 1. Writing their
thoughts down and having them supported by faculty helps some students
who normally don't express their ideas in a group to try out their
ideas with their peers.

The second question asks the student to reflect upon their own work and
work effort and helps us learn if there are any potential problems
within groups.

This week's e-journal is a follow-up to the presentations & lab we
did this week. The first part, goals & help needed, should be
written as a bulleted list with concrete objectives. The second part
should be answered in brief paragraph format.

The data collection phase of the projects is complete, or for some
groups, almost complete. While project work will carry on independently
through the end of the semester, we only have one more week in lab
devoted to it.

Part 1

After reviewing where you stood at the time of your presentation and
what you accomplished in lab this week, what do you intend to do with
the remaining lab period? What analyses do you hope to complete before
you present your results to the class in November? What help do you
need to meet these objectives?

Part 2

How do you feel about your project at this point? What do you feel you
did well? Are there any places you think you could have done better,
either personally or as a team?

Assessing Mastery of Content and Concepts

Last year I used this question to learn what specific problems students
were having with course material before an exam. By asking them to use
"use textbook vocabulary and to use it precisely" I am forcing them to
dig into material and be very specific about what they don't
understand. Sometimes students will write a very careful paragraph and
at the end say, "I understand it now." That doesn't always happen, so
for the most part I see what gets voted for most frequently and weave
that into the next lecture.

Critical Concepts Question

Thus far I have covered topics in my lectures which depend on the
following Critical Concepts sections in your textbook

CC1 Density

CC4 Particle size/sinking

CC6 Salinity, temp, etc

Read through these sections and write about the one that you had the
greatest difficulty understanding. Be specific about what you don't
understand. Be very careful to use textbook vocabulary and to use it
precisely. Write no more than three paragraphs

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Water is thicker than air and thus the dynamics of sound are vastly different in the sea. Join Scripps Institute's Jules Jaffe for a fascinating exploration of sound in the sea, and the amazing ways that science is using sound to probe the mysteries of the deep. (56 minutes0

Student graphing of high and low tide from locations showing the three tide types (diurnal, semi-diurnal, and mixed) and the Bay of Fundy (tidal amplitude increased by resonance). Students recognize that not all tides are the same and that location is an important control on tides.

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Part A: Students identify basic characteristics and terminology for waves. Part B: Students define factors that influence tides and practice using tide charts and tide tables.

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Using simple, inexpensive items, students build and test submarine models in a single class period. They gain insight into the engineering that's required to make these machines ascend, descend, and hover safely in extreme environments. The printable eight-page handout includes a series of inquiry-based questions that get students thinking about the complex engineering required for submersibles, illustrated experiment directions, and a worksheet that includes thought-provoking questions along with areas for recording experiment data.

In this exercise, students use online data, spreadsheets, and graphs to analyze tidal fluctuations at the Battery in New York. They will be asked to examine and compare the observed and predicted tides, and then make their own predictions.