The course map.
Eight units — four per semester — the labs that anchor them, and the two-day rhythm that runs every week of the year. This is the planner’s view — the whole course on one page.
Two days a week, and the work between them.
Every unit runs on the same rhythm: Concept Day → [student works at home] → Experiment Day → [student synthesizes at home] → next Concept Day. One day forces a choice between depth and breadth; two days allow both. More than two crowds out the at-home work where integration actually happens.
Concept Day
- Arrival & warm-up — reconnect with the prior session
- Pre-lecture discussion — surface what the at-home reading raised
- Direct instruction — micro-lectures, worked problems, demonstrations
- Problem set / model work — apply the concept, solo or in pairs
- Misconception sweep & wrap-up — correct common errors, preview the lab
Guide's role: Socratic and diagnostic. Student's role: active participation; pre-reading required.
Experiment Day
- Pre-lab briefing — the question, the procedure, the safety
- Safety check — goggles, gloves, careful handling of sharps & preserved specimens; explicit, every time
- Setup — microscopes, specimen trays, dissection kits, partner assignment
- Execution — the lab itself; the guide circulates and coaches
- Debrief & lab notebook — completed before the student leaves
- Cleanup & specimen care — to standard; respectful; non-negotiable
Guide's role: safety officer first, teacher second. Student's role: the lab notebook is THE artifact — predictions before results.
From the physical ocean to human impact.
The sequence is deliberate: each unit assumes the one before it. Click any unit to open its mastery rubric — the standard a student demonstrates against to advance.
| Unit | Big ideas | Anchor lab(s) | Integrates with |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 · The Ocean Environment | Ocean zones, salinity & seawater properties, temperature/pressure/light with depth, currents & circulation | Ocean-zone & water-property investigation (salinity, temperature, density) | HMS Challenger & the birth of oceanography (history, reading); geography of ocean basins; graphing temperature–salinity–depth profiles |
| 02 · Plankton & Primary Production | Phytoplankton & zooplankton, photosynthesis at the surface, the base of the food web, nutrient limitation | Plankton-tow microscopy — sample, count & identify | The microscope & the discovery of the microscopic ocean (history); biology (cells, photosynthesis); plankton-count data |
| 03 · Marine Plants, Algae & Kelp Forests | Seaweeds & true marine plants, kelp forests & seagrass meadows, algal structure, carbon & habitat | Algae & seaweed survey — press, key out & classify | Seaweed in food, industry & history (history, economics); botany; measuring cover & biomass |
| 04 · Marine Invertebrates | The invertebrate phyla — sponges, cnidarians, molluscs, arthropods, echinoderms; body plans & adaptations | Invertebrate dissection & identification (dichotomous key) | Comparative anatomy & classification (biology, history); dissection technique; structure–function reasoning |
| 05 · Fish & Sharks | Fish anatomy, buoyancy & gills, cartilaginous vs bony fish, adaptations for swimming & feeding | Fish anatomy & adaptation study (external + dissection) | Fisheries & ocean exploration (history, economics); physics of buoyancy & drag; measuring & comparing morphology |
| 06 · Marine Reptiles, Birds & Mammals | Air-breathing marine tetrapods, adaptations for diving & thermoregulation, whales & dolphins as mammals, sea turtles & seabirds | Marine-mammal adaptation analysis (blubber-insulation model; diving physiology) | Whaling & conservation history (history, ethics, writing); physiology; dive-depth & duration data |
| 07 · Ocean Ecosystems | Coral reefs, estuaries, the deep sea & hydrothermal vents; food webs, symbiosis & energy flow | Tide-pool / reef community survey (quadrat) | Darwin & the coral-reef puzzle (history, reading); ecology; quantifying diversity & abundance |
| 08 · Humans & the Ocean | Fisheries & overfishing, ocean pollution & plastics, climate change & acidification, conservation & marine protected areas | Fisheries & conservation data case study | Silent Spring & the conservation movement (history, ethics, writing); environmental science; analyzing catch & population data |
Every unit carries the core spokes — History, Reading, and Writing — anchored to the story in the integration guide. The column above names each unit’s distinctive spokes; geography and soft social studies run where they fit, and students pick from elective spokes (data, ethics, economics, technology, art). An applied-math lane runs through every unit too — math used in service of the science, never as a separate program.
Where mastery gets proven in person.
Three times across the year, the student steps up to a demonstration that cannot be faked, outsourced, or generated. These are the AI-proof core of the course — understanding, shown in real time, against a rubric, in front of a guide.
Specimen-identification defense
Identify marine specimens, name their adaptations, and defend the structure-function and classification calls out loud, under questions.
Timed oceanographic data reading
Interpret real ocean data — temperature-salinity profiles, tide tables, plankton counts — and reason from it, under time pressure.
Oral lab-notebook defense
Walk a guide through your own notebook: the question, the method, the data, the anomalies, the interpretation.