1. Oceanography in Kentucky? Margaret E. Crowder Department of Geography and Geology Western Kentucky University

2. GEOL 311 - Oceanography The course provides a foundation in the vast body of oceanic knowledge. It includes information from a variety of scientific disciplines – geology, geography, chemistry, physics, and biology – as they relate to the oceans. Required course for Geology majors focusing on Earth-Science Education Approved elective course within all other Geology tracks

3. Oceanography at WKU Oceanography is a recently revived course offering As an inland University, we have a certain disadvantage Current teaching methods are adequate…. –Always room for improvement!

4. What we do….

5. A picture is worth a thousand words PowerPoint is ESSENTIAL Some students have never visited the ocean! Students must be able to SEE the subject to understand it

6. Picture this!

7. Use what you have South-Central Kentucky is the perfect location to study paleo-marine environments –Limestones, shales, and sandstones are common –Marine fossils are easily found Students can use “Reverse” Uniformitarianism! –The past is the key to the present

8. Kentucky Limestone

9. Seeing is believing Can’t bring the ocean to the students? Take the students to the ocean! Bahamas course –Gerace Research Station on San Salvador Island, Bahamas –Special Topics course –Covered Geology and Biology Ideal situation –Students involved in the learning process VERY expensive

10. Students doing a reef transect

11. Taking conductivity measurements

12. Problem Based Learning Student responsibility increased Students gain ‘ownership’ of the learning process –Students research the information they feel is most important –Students actively solve real-world problems More information may be covered than class time would allow

13. Working with numbers Lab exercises using real data can be useful Students learn to use data, but may not understand the applications Haven’t found many that are interesting

14. What we would like to do….

15. If wishes were seahorses…. Collaboration between classes –Upper division coastal course & Introductory inland course –Classes cooperate on real research Useable data online –Data that introductory students can understand and use If students can take ownership of the data, they learn more!

16. A world of possibilities? More webcams? –Webcams on buoys Students ‘see’ the locations –Webcams on research vessels See the work as it is being done Virtual ocean research voyage? –Computer program that students can manipulate Similar to ‘Planet Oit’, a project at North Dakota State University

17. More possibilities…. Remote manipulation of oceanographic instrumentation via the web –Students participate in the process of collecting the data –Hmmm….didn’t we talk about this last night? Outreach to the public –Importance of oceanography needs to be emphasized everywhere –Students in landlocked areas of the country would be more likely to take an Oceanography course if they had some initial understanding