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 — assigned sources, labeled data, accessible record sheets; tools only for separately approved supervised work
- 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 | Local light zones; salinity, temperature and oxygen; mixing and circulation | Inland profile and mass-balance analysis; separately observed instrument reading if approved | Compare NOAA circulation and light evidence with the limits of historical soundings |
| 02 · Plankton & Primary Production | Marine microbes, plankton, primary production and respiration; microbial loop and biological pump | Inland count-volume, light/dark and carbon-budget analysis; approved prepared-slide interpretation | NASA ocean-color evidence versus microbial-rate measurements and oxygen claims |
| 03 · Marine Plants, Algae & Kelp Forests | Algal diversity and seagrasses; habitat cover; net production and carbon-stock limits | Inland keyed-figure and six-quadrat analysis; no collection, pressing or harvesting required | NOAA habitat monitoring and restoration claims: observed cover versus inferred carbon benefit |
| 04 · Marine Invertebrates | Invertebrate phyla and feeding; larval life history, dispersal, settlement and recruitment | Inland trait-key and tracked-cohort analysis; no hatchery, culture or animal handling | Compare sessile adults with dispersing larvae using NOAA reproduction evidence |
| 05 · Fish & Sharks | Fish anatomy, buoyancy and gill exchange; teleost/shark osmoregulation | Inland anatomy-figure, osmotic-budget and morphometric analysis; no live-animal manipulation | Correct a physiological museum claim using OpenStax comparative evidence |
| 06 · Marine Reptiles, Birds & Mammals | Tetrapod traits; oxygen stores and thermoregulation; feeding, migration and detection | Inland supplied cooling, archived-track and encounter-rate analysis; no physiological imitation | NOAA humpback recovery, population differences and photo-identification evidence |
| 07 · Ocean Ecosystems | Ecosystem contrasts; symbiosis, microbial loop and recruitment; abundance versus diversity | Complete inland six-quadrat investigation; optional approved dry accessible observation only | 1977 vent discovery and habitat claims tested against measured coverage and uncertainty |
| 08 · Humans & the Ocean | Fish stocks versus catch/CPUE; pollution and oxygen; carbonate chemistry and conservation | Inland fishery and carbonate case study with sensitivity; not a validated stock assessment | NOAA assessment evidence and a bounded conservation briefing, separate from the science grade |
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.
Assigned student learning
Open the eight learning pathways for specific reading sections, explanations, datasets, leveled practice, worked answers, and transfer evidence. Print the student unit pages alongside the separate assessment packets. Broad book recommendations do not replace the assigned sections.