Full text of "Oceanus"
Oceanus
Volume 33, Number 3, Fall 1990
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Marine Education
ISSN 0029-81 82
Oceanus
The International Magazine of Marine Science and Policy
Volume 33, Number 3, Fall 1990
Paul R. Ryan, Editor
Kathy S. Frisbee, Editorial Assistant
Carol Smith, Editorial Intern
Darshan Wozena, Editorial Intern
Robert W. Bragdon, Advertising Coordinator
Editorial Advisory Board
1930
Robert D. Ballard, Director of the Center for Marine Exploration, WHOI
lames M. Broadus, Director of the Marine Policy Center, WHOI
Henry Charnock, Professor of Physical Oceanography, University of Southampton, England
Gotthilf Hempel, Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar Research, West Germany
Charles D. Hoi lister, Vice-President and Associate Director for External Affairs, WHOI
John Imbrie, Henry L. Doherty Professor of Oceanography, Brown University
John A. Knauss, U.S. Undersecretary for the Oceans and Atmosphere, NOAA
Arthur E. Maxwell, Director of the Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas
Timothy R. Parsons, Professor, Institute of Oceanography, University of British Columbia, Canada
Allan R. Robinson, Gordon McKay Professor of Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Harvard University
David A. Ross, Chairman, Department of Geology and Geophysics, and Sea Grant Coordinator, WHOI
Published by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Guy W. Nichols, Chairman of the Board of Trustees
John H. Steele, President of the Corporation
Charles A. Dana III, President of the Associates
Craig E. Dorman, Director of the Institution
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Director's
Statement
he Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution was
established to be an international center for ocean
science. Since its early years, the Institution has
hosted visiting students in many categories; espe-
cially graduate students conducting thesis research,
postdoctoral scholars, and undergraduate summer student fellows.
In 1967, our Charter from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was
expanded to include education, specifically authorizing us to award
graduate degrees. In the 20-plus years since our Joint Program with
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was initiated, education
at the master's, doctoral, and postdoctoral levels, and semester or
summer research experiences for undergraduates, has become an
intrinsic part of our research.
We are now finding it important to extend our educational
outreach to a much broader audience. Ocean science is exciting and
can spark the imaginations of school children; the oceans are vital to
our economic competitiveness and national defense, as well as to
global health. The results of our research have immediate relevance
to major issues of the day, and we must make them known to
policymakers and the public, as well as to our scientific peers.
Oceanus itself is a major contributor to this educational process. We
try to address topics that are timely and important as well as
interesting.
This issue discusses both traditional and innovative programs
in marine education. In our usual fashion, we make no attempt to
be complete. Our interest is in giving you a feel for the range of
activities and perspectives on the subject.
— Craig E. Dorman
Director, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
MARINE EDUCATION
1 Director's Statement
by Craig E. Dorman
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is
extending its educational outreach to a much
broader audience in an effort to better inform the
public on some of today's major science issues.
5 Introduction:
Marine Education
by John W. Farrington
The main challenge facing marine education is in the
kindergarten through 12 sector. The excitement of
discovery must be conveyed to young and old alike.
Awakening Interest Early
^| ^\ Human Resource Trends in Oceanography
J by Luther Williams
•JL AM There is a pressing need to expand the role of
women and minorities in oceanography in this decade
and the next. New National Science Foundation initia-
tives are outlined.
r\ /^\ Getting Kids Wet
S I I ty Valerie Chase
^•" V-/ The author reports on the many marine
programs in place for kindergarten through 12 youth,
which include history, literature, song, and art, as well as
earth, life, and physical science.
Women in Ocean Science
.
Individual Graduate Project
^\ ^^ Editorial:
J / A Proposal to Meet Education Challenges
^— / by Arthur R. M. Nowell and Charles D. Hollister
The authors call for the oceanographic community to
establish a plan to meet the education challenges facing
the field. They outline five activity areas as a basis for
such a plan.
Copyright © 1990 by the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution. Oceanus (ISSN 0029-8182) is published in March,
June, September, and December by the Woods Hole Oceano-
graphic Institution, 9 Maury Lane, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
02543. Second-class postage paid at Falmouth, Massachusetts;
Windsor, Ontario; and additional mailing points.
POSTMASTER: Send address change to Oceanus Sub-
scriber Service Center, P.O. Box 6419, Syracuse, NY 13217.
Headings and Readings
?
Research at Sea
Undergraduate and Graduate Education
in Oceanography by Arthur R. M. Nowell
and Charles D. Hollister
The field of oceanography offers rich personal rewards
for students pursuing advanced degrees.
Sea Grant's Role in Marine Education
by Robert D. Wildman and David A. Ross
The authors outline Sea Grant's multiple
approaches to promoting marine science education at
all levels in our society and at our universities and
institutions.
The Ocean as a Classroom
by Susan Humphris
The author describes the benefits of practical
learning experiences at sea whereby students are ex-
posed to the realities of working within the ocean
systems they are studying firsthand.
Muses in the Rigging
ty Tom Goux
The sea is music and music is a great tool in
learning about maritime history. The author describes
the power of music in educating people about the joys,
dangers, and laments of seafaring life.
Science in the Lab
Diving for Zooplankton
LETTERS
BOOKS
The Changing Face of Maritime Education
by Geoff Motte
Maritime academies, facing declining enroll-
ments, are offering degrees in less traditional pursuits,
such as facilities and plant engineering.
Scientific Illiteracy
by Joseph Levine
_ The author finds that the teaching profession is
largely to blame for the public's scientific illiteracy — 40
percent of whom cannot locate the Pacific Ocean on a map.
THE COVER is a graphite drawing by Ron Bolt, a Canadian artist. It
first appeared in the book The Inner Ocean, and was entitled
"Alexander's Rag Time Boat," © 1979. Other credits appear on page 38.
3
The Unchanging Image
of the Scientist
Children's ideas about scientists have changed little
during the last 30 years. In 1957, Mead and Metraux
summarized the views of about 35,000 high school students,
noting consistently shared characteristics, and then a division
between a positive and negative image:
Shared Image
The scientist is a man who wears a white coat and works
in a laboratory. He is elderly or middle aged and wears
glasses.. .He may be bald. He may wear a beard, may be
(continued on page 10)
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ft
o
Ofi
w
Introduction
Marine
Education
by John W. Farrington
A cascade of recent studies has made it abundantly clear that by both
national and international standards and world norms, U.S. education is
failing too many students - and hence failing the nation. By all accounts,
America has no more urgent priority than the reform of education in science,
mathematics, and technology.
— Science for All Americans — Summary of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science-Project 2061. 1989.
y desk and bookshelves are over-
flowing with recent reports and
articles produced by government,
industry, and independent groups,
all providing a constant reminder of
the above quote and the serious-
ness of the challenge that
confronts those of us
engaged in
science, math-
ematics, and
= Rcxp (iS/h)
'
/(?) exp ( - in)dt = (In) ~ l f(t) exp ( - irt)dt.
"What's
missing in
science
education is
the AAAHl,
the excite-
ment of doing
science with
your hands
and your
eyes."
engineering education — indeed confronts all citizens of the United
States.
These reports identify the main education challenges as being in
the kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12) sector, and in under-
graduate education. We need to go beyond survey and introduction
courses and ensure that our young people are on intimate terms not
only with scientific, mathematical, and engineering principles, but
with the process by which research and discovery proceed. A key
element in this advancement is the transition from new knowledge
to technology, policy, and management.
How else will our youth be prepared to bring rational reason-
ing to such issues as global climate change, energy re-
sources, genetic engineering, biomedical research, waste
disposal problems, defense technology, space exploration, utiliza-
tion of ocean resources, and as yet undreamed of challenges?
Simultaneously, we must provide enhanced continuing education
for our adult population. This population must be made aware of
present advances in our understanding and the limits of our knowl-
edge.
It is thus appropriate and timely for Oceanus to devote this issue
to Marine Education. As readers will quickly realize by scanning
the table of contents, this issue examines a wide range of marine
education activities.
A common theme throughout this issue is the use of the oceans
as a means of teaching the fundamentals of science and the scientific
process. "What's been missing in science education is the, AAAH!,
the excitement of doing science with your hands and your eyes,"
according to Robin Hogen, Executive Vice President of the Merck
Co. Foundation as quoted this spring in Fortune magazine's special
issue on Saving Our ScJiools, "We've tried to give kids the experi-
ence of discovery so they can learn by manipulating and doing."
Susan Humphris' article, "The Ocean as a Classroom: The Role
of Practical Experience in Science Education" (page 46), has
this as the central theme. Her statements on the use of the
diversity and complexity of the ocean to introduce undergraduate
students "to the excitement of discovery" address a central tenant of
much of the movement toward revitalization of science education in
the United States — involve the students in the process of scientific
inquiry. Luther Williams eloquently supports this point when
discussing careers in his article. He describes several National
Science Foundation (NSF) programs aimed at providing students of
all ages with a research experience.
The discovery theme is rampant in the article "Getting Kids
Wet," by Valerie Chase, about marine education for grades K-12
(what a delightful, appropriate title — I was tempted to entitle this
introduction "Getting Everyone Wet" after reading her article — see
page 20.) The romantic allure of the sea and its part in human
endeavors are delightfully woven throughout Tom Goux's "Muses
in the Rigging" (page 52). His infectious enthusiasm for music
education and the sea reminds us that marine education should not
be construed only as science and engineering, but encompasses the
arts and humanities. He reminds us that interactions of people and
the sea, and of the sea alone, are integral parts of the body of works
in the arts and humanities.
Luther Williams, in his article, and Robert Wildman and David
Ross, in their's, illuminate the substantial role of the Sea Grant
program in Marine Education on a national and local basis
(see page 39). They provide compelling statistics about the serious
shortfalls in the numbers of scientists and engineers projected for
the United States by the end of the 20th century, if current trends of
decreasing interest in these careers are coupled with the demo-
graphic downtrend in numbers of college age students.
Wildman and Ross also highlight a very important problem in
science and engineering education — the need for an expanded and
more effective effort at attracting minorities and women to the
sciences and engineering. Marine sciences and engineering are not
exceptions to this general rule. Progress has been made with the
increase of women ocean scientists and ocean engineers in recent
years as evidenced by graduate school enrollments. However, these
numbers are far below what can and should be accomplished in the
1990s and beyond. The role models are there in increasing numbers
for young women thinking of a career in oceanography or ocean
engineering. In addition, much needed changes in the working
environment conducive to enhancing the careers of female marine
scientists and engineers have or are being implemented.
Unfortunately, there has not been much progress in attracting
minorities to the marine sciences, especially African- Americans and
Hispanics. Often, this is ascribed to the fact that the marine sciences
and engineering traditionally emerge as separate disciplines of
science and engineering at the graduate education level as explained
by Nowell and Hollister (page 31). It has been argued that marine
sciences and engineering cannot do very much to increase minority
involvement until the pool of undergraduate scientists and engi-
neers contains a better representation of minorities.
I am pleased to report that this type of reasoning is heard less
frequently and has no credibility. Ocean sciences and engineer-
ing share with all scientific and engineering disciplines the
responsibility to attract minorities to sciences, mathematics, and
engineering by the types of efforts described in the articles in this
issue. Wildman and Ross are correct. "These small numbers of
minorities in the sciences are a national shame; there are scientific
opportunities for women and minorities in science, particularly in
marine sciences, that should be tapped. Indeed, if the predicted
shortfall is to be avoided, large numbers of women and minorities
must be attracted to scientific or technical careers." Williams
reports on some of the NSF programs aimed at encouraging African
There is a
need to
attract more
minorities
and women in
marine
science and
engineering
We need to
increase
efforts to use
the oceans as
a means of
general
education in
the sciences.
American, Hispanic, and Native American students to complete
undergraduate degrees and pursue graduate degrees in all science
and engineering fields.
Nowell and Hollister report on general aspects of undergradu-
ate and graduate education in oceanography. Their article provides
sound advice for students interested in a graduate education in
terms of what is the best undergraduate preparation. They explain
why there is less emphasis on undergraduate education in ocean
sciences as a separate undergraduate major.
In other articles and reports on education, there is a general
tendency to state that graduate education in the sciences and
engineering in the United States is in great shape. The only
problem reported seems to be the lack of sufficiently well-qualified
United States students in great enough numbers. An increasing
percentage of science, mathematics, and engineering graduate
students in U.S. graduate schools is from other countries. The
foreign students contribute effectively to research in the United
States and some remain after graduate school to enhance U.S.
science and technology in the great tradition of the U.S. "melting
pot."
However, the demographic trend of decreasing numbers of U.S.
college-age students projected during the next decade, coupled with
the current trend of decreasing interest in sciences and mathematics
among entering freshman, provide compelling evidence that a
shortfall in qualified, much needed graduate students is occurring
now and will be exacerbated in the next 10 years unless counter-
measures are put in place. The major and urgent countermeasure is
set forth in this quote from Wildman and Ross: "If the predicted
shortfall is to be avoided, large numbers of women and minorities
must be attracted to scientific and technical careers."
These are tumultuous times in science, mathematics, and
engineering education in the United States, especially for K-12 and
the undergraduate years. Several challenges have emerged that
require simultaneous attention. THIS IS A NATIONAL PRIORITY!
We cannot afford to gamble with the well-being of our young
people in terms of providing them with less than the very best
education, not only in the sciences, but in all subjects.
Our efforts should not be aimed at only an elite few of the
best students in the sciences, mathematics, and engineering,
but should encompass all students. Sheila Tobias, in her
recent report "They're Not Dumb, They're Different. Stalking the
Second Tier," published by the Research Corporation, covers this
important subject. She quotes Shirley M. Malcolm, head of the
Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, in
February's Scientific American; " Who will do science? That de-
pends on who is included in the talent pool. The old rules do not
x
work in the new reality. It's time for a different game plan that
brings new players in off the bench."
Part of the different game plan should involve an expansion of
efforts to use the oceans as a means of general education in the
sciences. As will be readily apparent from reading the articles in
this issue, some very enthusiastic and dedicated people with
innovative ideas are meeting the challenges in science, mathematics,
and technology education by using the oceans as a classroom and as
subject material.
Let us hope that more of our young people will "get wet" and
discover the excitement of ocean sciences and the excitement and
importance of science, mathematics, and engineering in general.
There is no doubt that young people are ready. The key question is
whether or not adults individually, in small groups, and in a
national context will provide the much needed encouragement and
means for our young people to realize their vast potentials.
Research on Naushon
Island, part of the
Elizabeth chain near
Woods Hole, on the
effects of an oil spill.
Some of the partici-
pants were American
Indians from a South-
ern Utah State College
Upward Bound
Summer program, held
at WHOI during the
summer of 1990.
John W. Farrington is Associate Director for Education and Dean of
Graduate Studies at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. A
former Senior Scientist in the Chemistry Department at WHOI, and
Professor at the University of Massachusetts/Boston, his back-
ground is in chemistry and chemical oceanography.
(continued from page 4)
unshaven and unkempt. He may be stooped and tired.. .He is
surrounded by equipment: test tubes, bunsen burners, flasks and
bottles, a jungle gym of blown glass tubes and weird machines
with dials.. .He spends his days doing experiments. He pours
chemicals from one test tube into another. . .He experiments with
plants and animals, cutting them apart, injecting serum into
animals...
Positive Image
He is a very intelligent man-a genius. He has long years of
expensive training. He is interested in his work and takes it
seriously. He works for long hours in the laboratory/, sometimes
day and night, going without food and sleep. . .He is prepared to
work for years without getting results. One day he might
straighten up and shout: "I've found it! I've found it!" ...Through
his work people will be healthier and live lojiger, they will have
new and better products to make life easier and pleasanter at
home, and our country will be protected from enemies abroad.
Negative Image
The scientist is a brain. He spends his days indoors, sitting
in a laboratory, pouring things from one test tube into another.
His work is uninteresting, dull, monotonous, tedious, time
consuming. . .he may live in a cold water flat.. .His work may be
tedious. Chemicals may explode. He may be hurt by radiation or
may die. If he does medical research, he may bring home disease,
or may use himself as a guinea pig, or may even accidentally kill
someone. . .He is so involved with his work that he doesn't know
what is going on in the world. He has no other interests and
neglects his body for his mind. . .He has no social life, no other
intellectual interests, no hobbies or relaxations. He bores his
wife. . .He brings home work and also bugs and creepy things.
Based on their analysis, Mead and Metraux suggested that
the mass media should emphasize the real, human rewards of
science, the enjoyment of group work, and how science works.
Schools, they said, should:
• emphasize participation in the classroom rather than
passive learning;
• emphasize group projects;
• teach science as immediately pertinent to human values,
living things, and the natural world;
• teach mathematical principles much earlier;
10
• provide teachers who enjoy and are proficient in science;
• make sure that teaching and counseling encourage girls;
• de-emphasize the rare individual geniuses of science, such
as Einstein, to make science more accessible to the
average child and emphasize the individual sciences as
broad fields of endeavor;
• avoid talking about "Science, Scientists, and the Scientific
Method" as a whole, and rather, talk about individual
fields and what different methods are; and
• emphasize life sciences, humans, and other living things to
make science more immediate to children.
Children of the 1980s held images of science and scientists
that were essentially unchanged from those of the 1950s. In 1986,
researchers at Harvard University's Educational Technology
Center applied Mead and Metraux's methodology to another
generation of potential scientists. They reported that:
Most responses sounded familiar: scientists are nerds and
science is important but boring. The students had little inkling of
the day-to-day intellectual activities of scientists, of what experi-
ments are for, or of the social nature of the scientific enterprise.
—From Educating
Scientists and
Engineers: Grade
School to Grad
School 1988, U.S.
Congress, Office
of Technology
Assessment.
11
Human Resource
Trends in
Oceanography
"The human mind is not withheld from penetrating
into the dark secrets of the ocean"
-Sir Charles Lyell, 1830
by Luther Williams
uman eyes first beheld those dark sea secrets in 1960
when Jacques Piccard and Navy Lieutenant Don
Walsh descended
10,900 meters below
the surface of the
Pacific Ocean in the bathyscaphe
Trieste. In that same year, Harry
Hammond Hess presented his
theory of seafloor spreading and the
United States launched its first
weather satellite, TIROS 1. Thus
began a decade of unprecedented
investigation and discovery in
oceanography, and in science and
engineering in general. A new
President emboldened Americans to
"explore the stars, conquer the
deserts, eradicate disease, tap the
ocean depths," and they did.
Throughout the 1960s, as
federal and private support of
research and education expanded,
steadily increasing numbers of new
scientists and engineers graduated
from U.S. colleges and universities
at all levels. Oceanography was a
relatively new field, with education
closely tied to research. Yet the few
undergraduate programs there were
At right, the bathyscaphe Trieste prior
to its record dive of 35,800 feet in the
Mariana Trench off Guam, in 1960.
12
400-
Degrees in Oceanography
350-
300-
250-
200-
150-
100-
50-
I
sO CO O
*^D '**& r^
o^ o^ o^
B.S.
expanded dramatically. The
number of baccalaureate degrees
awarded in oceanography
increased to more than 350 in
1972 from less than 20 in 1966.
And the increases at the master's
and doctoral levels mirrored
increases in the other science and
engineering fields.
Throughout the decade,
students pursued their fascina-
tion with science and technology.
America enjoyed an unprec-
edented period of research
vitality and economic prosperity.
After 1973, however, U.S. eco-
nomic growth slowed. In the
sciences and engineering, the
number of new graduates
dropped off. It was not until 1981 that the number of students
graduating with science degrees began to increase again. And
today, there are still fewer new scientists earning degrees at all
levels than in the early 1970s.
As in other science fields, the number of students earning
degrees in oceanography increased in the '60s and de-
creased in the 70s. In 1983, the number of students earning
bachelor's and master's degrees in oceanography reached their lows
at 128 and 103, respectively. The increases in the '80s have been
variable and relatively small. Only at the doctoral level was there a
steady increase in the number of new oceanographers, an increase
exhibited by few other science fields.
Women, too, displayed increasing interest in oceanography. In
1966, just one woman earned a bachelor's degree in oceanography;
only six earned master's degrees; none earned a Ph.D. Twenty-two
years later, 83 women received degrees in oceanography, evenly
divided among bachelor's, master's, and doctorates. Still, women
remain underrepresented in oceanography, though no more so than
in science and engineering in general.
Yet the number of minorities earning degrees in oceanography
remains notably small even when compared to other science fields.
Between 1975 and 1988, only two Blacks and two Native Americans
received doctorates in oceanography, marine sciences, or water
resources. Only 13 Hispanics earned doctorates during that period,
and even Asians, who are overrepresented in most other sciences,
are underrepresented in oceanography. Between 1975 and 1988,
only 20 Asians earned Ph.D.s in the field, 1 percent of all doctorates
awarded.
Clearly, there is a need to expand the participation in oceanog-
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13
Women and
minorities
represent a
vast and
largely
untapped
reservoir of
talent for
oceanography.
raphy. The composition of the population is changing. Already in a
number of states, more than half the student population is non-
white. And by the middle of the next century, "minorities" will
comprise more than 50 percent of the total U.S. population. By the
end of this century, only 15 percent of the new entrants to the labor
force will be white males. Women and minorities represent a vast
and largely untapped reservoir of talent.
To sustain the vitality of the nation's efforts in all fields includ-
ing oceanography, the research and education communities
need to improve their ability to recruit and retain minority
and women students. To assist researchers and educators in this
task, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has initiated a number
of new human resource development programs in the past decade
- focused programs such as Research Opportunities for Women,
Minority Research Initiation and Career Advancement Awards,
Research Careers for Minority Scholars, and Assistantships for
Minority High School Students.
For example, NSF is currently supporting a two-year project at
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that enables minor-
ity college students to learn about earth, ocean, and environmental
sciences during the summer. And the Alliances for Minority
Participation program, begun this year, will encourage Black,
Hispanic, and Native American undergraduates to complete their
baccalaureate degrees and pursue graduate studies in all science
and engineering fields. This program promotes alliances both
among program participants and sponsors - - minority and major-
ity 2- and 4-year colleges and universities, school administrators,
other federal agencies, industry, and private foundations.
Yet, our focused human resource and education programs are
only one way in which NSF influences students' decisions regarding
research careers. Employment opportunities and prospects are
powerful incentives for students choosing fields of study. For those
considering science, the level of public and private support for
research is crucially important.
Uncertainties about federal research funding can discourage
students from pursuing studies in science. In oceanogra-
phy, especially, this is an important concern. Research and
development (R&D) are the primary work activities of most ocean-
ographers. Sixty percent of all those employed are involved in
R&D; more than half engaged in basic research. By contrast, only
about 20 percent of all other employed scientists are involved in
R&D, and only about a quarter of those are engaged in basic re-
search.
Employment opportunities for oceanographers are increasingly
concentrated in colleges, universities, and federal facilities. Only
about 15 percent of all oceanographers were employed by industry
in 1988 compared to more than 70 percent a decade earlier. In 1988,
more than 40 percent of all oceanographers were employed at
14
academic institutions; 25
percent were federally
employed. By contrast, only
about 30 percent of all
scientists were employed in
the academic and federal
sectors combined. Ocean-
ography, more than other
fields, relies on federal
academic research funding
to sustain its vitality and
progress.
Moreover, NSF is
the primary
source of basic
research funding in ocean-
ography, providing almost
70 percent of the federal
funding. President Bush's
plan to double the National
Science Foundation budget
by 1993, along with a 5-year
NSF budget authorization
enacted by Congress, is a
positive step toward easing
some uncertainties about
research careers. Steady
federal support of academic
R&D does more than
simply fund projects; it
helps create an environ-
ment that attracts talented
students to research careers.
Nonetheless, the
nation is unlikely
to resume the R&D
support pattern of the
1960s. Between 1953 and
1969, real R&D expendi-
tures in the United States,
public and private com-
bined, increased from $19.7
billion a year to $64.7 billion
a year (in 1982 dollars),
growing at an average rate
of almost 8 percent a year.
Since that time, expendi-
tures have increased to $132
Women in Oceanography
Baccalaureate Degrees
§
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Nonmonetary
benefits far
outweigh
economic
reasons for
pursuing
careers in
science and
engineering.
billion ($105 billion in 1982 dollars), but the average rate of real
growth has been less than 3 percent a year. Constraints on the
federal budget and increased commercial competition make dra-
matic increases in R&D unlikely.
The economic incentives that helped draw students into science
and engineering during the 1960s are not likely to be duplicated in
the 1990s. Therefore, we must look elsewhere for ways to attract
students to these fields. Where should we look?
Most people pursue research careers in science and engineering
for very personal reasons — curiosity, the intellectual challenge,
"because it seemed the most fun, because I'm good at it!" Real
compensation comes from their day-to-day experiences.
Nonmonetary benefits -- the freedom, the intellectual challenge, the
thrill of discovery, and the chance to make a lasting contribution to
knowledge and to society - - far outweigh economic considerations.
These benefits are best realized firsthand. Involving more
students, especially undergraduates, in real research is a good
place to start. Students come to understand the practice of
science and engineering by experiencing it in partnership with a
faculty member or as part of a group. Research experience helps
undergraduates assess their strengths and better choose their career
goals.
NSF has initiated a number of programs to encourage grantees
to include undergraduates in their research. Supplemental funds
are available to support undergraduate researchers on individual
grants, and undergraduates participate in the activities of NSF-
sponsored Science and Technology Centers and Engineering
Research Centers.
In addition, NSF has a number of new programs designed to
strengthen research opportunities for both faculty and students at
undergraduate institutions. For example, this year NSF is sponsor-
ing an "Oceanography Short Course for Instructors of Undergradu-
ate Marine Sciences" involving 2- and 4-year college faculty in
activities at the University of San Diego, Scripps Institution of
Oceanography, and Grossmont Community College.
Still, many students make career decisions before they even
enter college. Therefore, NSF has extended its support for
mathematics and science education at the precollege level.
The National Science Foundation is the primary source of federal
funding in this area, comprising 45 percent of the national budget.
Moreover, education and human resources are the fastest growing
components of NSF's budget, increasing more than 260 percent in
the last five years. In fiscal year 1991, NSF plans to spend more than
$460 million on these programs.
Our approach is to address the process of education and human
resource development as a continuum starting at the elementary
and secondary levels, continuing on through the undergraduate and
graduate levels and beyond. Each level presents different needs
16
and unique opportuni-
ties. The transitions
between levels also are
important and they
require attention.
For example, the
Young Scholars Pro-
gram, initiated in 1988,
is designed to expose
students in grades 8
through 12 to careers in
science and engineering
by letting them work
with researchers. For
example, this December
an 18-year-old from
Douglaston, New York, will study the physiological ecology of
adult and larval krill in Antarctica with two senior marine scientists
from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Another Young
Scholar from Scott, Louisiana, will study the antarctic ice sheet with
a team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Faculties at universities and colleges, with NSF funding, also
are helping to improve classroom instruction of mathematics
and science at the precollege level. Programs to develop
substantive and hands-on curricula and to enhance teachers'
competencies in grade school and high school mathematics and
science are an important part of NSF's activities. Across the coun-
try, scientists and engineers at colleges and universities and at the
national laboratories, are developing similar projects with NSF
support to help precollege science and math teachers better prepare
and inspire their students. Moreover, NSF supports an array of
informal education
projects at a diverse
collection of institutional
sites.
NSF's new State-
wide Systemic Initiative
is the next logical step in
this process. It's de-
signed to support
wholesale reforms in
mathematics and science
education at the state
level by supporting the
work of state officials,
starting with the gover-
nor. This new initiative
will augment the NSF-
The young woman
(above) is preparing
salt marsh samples for
a spider study as part
of a minority trainee
program at the Woods
Hole Oceanographic
Institution (WHO/).
Foreign scientists, like
this Japanese researcher
(below), often conduct
their training in
WHOI's Joint Program
with MIT.
17
supported teacher training and curriculum development projects
that are already yielding positive results.
We are lucky that so many bright high school students show an
interest in science and engineering. According to the Educational
Testing Service, mean SAT scores for 1988 examinees planning to
major in math, science, or engineering were 18 points higher than
the population mean Verbal score, and 31 points higher than the
mean Math score.
The challenge is to make sure that economic conditions do not
discourage these students from pursuing that interest. We must let
them know and experience the rich personal rewards and satisfac-
tions of participating in research and development.
The 1990s offer opportunities for scientific and technological
breakthroughs more far-reaching than those in the 1960s. Exploit-
ing those opportunities will require well-trained and dedicated
researchers in oceanography and other fields. Sustained basic
research funding, improved mathematics and science education,
and increased efforts to attract and retain women and minorities in
research careers are crucial steps toward making today's possibili-
ties tomorrow's realities.
Luther Williams is the Assistant Director for Education and Human
Resources at the National Science Foundation, Washington, DC.
Oceanus Wins 2 "Ozzie" Awards
From a field of more than 1,300 magazines, Oceanus has been awarded the 1990 Gold
Award (first place) given by Magazine Design & Production for Best Redesign of a
magazine in the educational category. The award was given for the Spring issue on the
Mediterranean, Vol. 33, No. 1. Oceanus was also awarded a Bronze Award (third place)
in the Best Cover category for the Pacific issue, Winter 1989/90, Vol. 32, No. 4.
Magazine Design & Production is a monthly publication of South Wind Publishers in
Kansas. The competition was open to all magazines published in the United States and
Canada. One of the principal judges in the competition was Marjorie Spiegelman, an
award-winning designer from San Francisco who holds a graduate degree in graphic
design from the Yale School of Art and Architecture. She was the principal designer of
MacWorld, Publish!, and PC World.
The principal staff of Oceanus during the period of the awards included Paul R. Ryan,
editor and designer, T. M. Hawley, assistant editor and production coordinator, Sara
Ellis, editorial assistant, and Robert Bragdon, advertising coordinator. Paul E.
Oberlander, of OberGraphics, was the artist who conceived and created the award-
winning cover. Nineteen-ninety was the first year that Oceanus had entered the annual
competitions. - Ed.
Taylor & Francis
Contemporary Issues in the Marine Sciences
for the 1990s...
MANAGING MARINE ENVIRONMENTS
Richard A. Kenchington,
Great Barrier Marine Park Authority, Australia
This book introduces readers to contemporary issues of multiple-use planning and
management of marine environments and natural resources. It draws heavily on the
experience of the first ten years of Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
Key issues of marine environment and resource management are discussed as well as
methods to achieve reasonable use of marine environments and resources. The author points
out the advantages and limitations of the multiple-use management approach to marine
environment issues. Ways in which these approaches may be improved by implementation
and coordination are also suggested.
1990 • 175 pages • 0-8448-1635-3 • Hardcover • $49.50
MANAGING THE OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF LANDS
R. Scott Farrow, with James M. Broadus, Thomas A. Grigalunas,
Porter Hoagland, HI, and James J. Opaluch,
School of Urban and Public Affairs,
Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
This book presents the issues, institutions and people associated with managing the
energy and mineral resources of the Outer Continental Shelf of the United States. These
lands are leased by the government to oil and gas companies in an auction that generates
billions of dollars per year in federal revenue. They are the focus of continuous policy
debates.
This book illustrates the controversy by demonstrating how carefully thought-out policy
analysis, using modern quantitative methods, provides guidance on issues such as
government revenue, hazards to the environment and supply of energy.
1990 • 320 pages • 0-8448-1657-4 • Hardcover • $45.00
0-8448-1658-2 • Softcover • $26.00
Send Orders To:
Taylor & Francis • 1900 Frost Road • Suite 101
Bristol, PA * 19007
Or call, TOLL-FREE 1-800-821-8312
19
A Sea Grant Education
Specialist (above)
discusses marine
adaptations with North
Carolina school
children. A young man
(middle) aboard a
Minnesota research
vessel focuses on an
algae specimen. With a
smile as wide as the
reach of a starfish, a
young girl (below)
shares her delight with
a friend.
Getting Kids
*»
Kids talk to the animals
in the Great Lakes Sea
Grant Network. In this
instance, "Gulliver," a
mechanical gull, talks
back, captivating his
young listener with a
humorous discourse on
the serious subject of
the environment.
Marine
Education
for grades
K-12
by Valerie Chase
parent in Reno, Nevada, enters his child's
classroom expecting to see rows of desks
facing a teacher's desk and chalkboard only
to encounter a huge shark cruising the edges
of a giant kelp forest alive with colorful fish and inverte-
brates. Has he been magically transported to the coast of
California? No, it is "Ocean Week."
The entire school has been transformed into marine
21
Marine
education in
K-12 includes
maritime
history, lit-
erature, song,
and art, as
well as earth,
life, and
physical
science.
habitats, created by students using Project OCEAN (Oceanic
Classroom Education And Networking), a curriculum from the
Ocean Alliance. This is just one of dozens of innovative programs
in marine education available for classroom teachers. An unex-
pected outcome of this particular schoolwide project is a reduction
in absenteeism, vandalism, and social problems.
Marine education in grades K-12 is creative and fun. It also
seeks to motivate a sense of stewardship and caring. It encompasses
subjects as varied as maritime history, literature, song, and art, as
well as earth, life, and physical science. Marine education has
always been interdisciplinary, anticipating a current trend in
curriculum development.
The National Marine Educators Association (NMEA) and its 15
chapters have facilitated an exchange of ideas and informa-
tion by bringing informal and formal marine educators
together at annual conferences and through its publications, Cur-
rent, the Journal of Marine Education, and NMEA news.
Television has created a nationwide interest in the oceans, and
marine educators have put this medium to work in classrooms
across North America, not just along the coasts. One way that
marine education reaches precollege students is through the devel-
opment of new curricula. The National Sea Grant Program is one
excellent source (see page 39). There are many others. Several
curricula are designed for formal adoption as regular science
curricula, teaching basic principles while studying the marine
environment.
"Marine Science Project FOR SEA" is a comprehensive marine
science curriculum for grades K-12 developed by the Marine
Science Center in Poulsbo, Washington. It is distributed nationwide
through the National Diffusion Network of the U.S. Department of
Education in a program that includes teacher training. A smaller
program with national distribution is the marine and aquatic science
curriculum "Living in Water" from the National Aquarium in
Baltimore, for upper-elementary to middle school children.
At the high school level, oceanography texts and materials
from the Hawaii Marine Science Studies program teach
about "The Fluid Earth." A unifying feature of each of
these curricula is the emphasis on hands-on experimentation by
students.
An alternative approach is to create enrichment activities that
supplement regular classroom curricula. For example, with Project
OCEAN an entire school takes a week off regular topics to study
oceans. Project WILD, a nationwide program of environmental
conservation education, recently introduced "Project WILD
Aquatic," which includes activities in marine education.
Many marine education curricula have been developed and
disseminated by informal educators or school districts. One excep-
tion is "Voyage oftheMimi," a highly interdisciplinary upper-
22
elementary to middle school curriculum. It was
originated by Bank Street College located in New
York City, but has been distributed by commercial
publishers. It includes computer software and
video tapes and follows the travels of scientists
and students on a sailing whale research ship.
Mimi is often supplemented by the use of addi-
tional content and hands-on marine science
materials when it is adopted as science curricu-
lum.
A second major source of marine education
for students is through visits to informal
educational organizations, such as aquari-
ums, zoological parks, nature and environmental
education centers, museums, and marine field
stations. There also are a number of floating field stations, such as
the Clearwater, a sloop on the Hudson River, or the Chesapeake Bay
Foundation's workboats and canoes. Programs range from 45-
minute classes to residential experiences.
Instruction by specialists in marine science or maritime history
is a special feature of informal education. Institutions frequently
provide extensive preactivities for classroom use and teacher
training programs to enhance the impact of the visit. For example,
Monterey Bay Aquarium sponsors teacher training programs each
summer and does cooperative teacher training with the adjacent
Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University.
Improvement of K-12 marine education is the ultimate goal of
many programs aimed at teachers, as well as students. In addition
to courses from informal education organizations, marine science
training for elementary and secondary teachers also is provided by a
number of colleges and universities, particularly those along
coastlines, including the Great Lakes. These courses are often
supported by funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF),
Sea Grant, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the National
Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
One of the most exciting aspects of
many courses is a strong compo-
nent of field work in the marine
environment. One NOAA-sponsored
program at the Marine Resources Devel-
opment Foundation in Florida even
includes an overnight stay in an underwa-
ter habitat. Program announcements for
these courses may be found in the Na-
tional Science Teachers Association NSTA
Reports! and in the summer and academic
year opportunities issues of the NMEA
News.
•J ' /
^a ./
From their study of the
anatomy of marine
organisms, students
begin to discover how
much of our world is
influenced by the
oceans.
A very strong
conservation
message is
included in
most marine
education
programs and
curricula.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) also is becoming
involved with marine education through its funding of aquatic
resource education programs with the taxes collected on boat gas
and imported fishing tackle. While the initial emphasis was on
freshwater environments, marine education also is receiving atten-
tion in coastal states. The programs are actually run by state
departments of fish and game or natural resources.
Additional help for marine education comes from a wide
variety of federal agencies that support research on marine
environments, organisms, or problems. These include the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), federal marine and
estuarine sanctuaries (NOAA), or coastal wildlife refuges (USFWS),
as well as similar state agencies. A welcome trend in marine
education is action-oriented projects for students. During
"Coastweek" in the fall, many schools help with beach cleanup
programs coordinated nationwide by the Center for Marine Conser-
vation. In addition to cleaner beaches, the data cards filled out at
beach sweeps help identify specific sources of marine debris.
Other action projects include planting forest buffer strips along
estuarine shores, water-quality monitoring programs that send
data to marine labs or government agencies, wetland restoration,
planting beach grasses or submerged vegetation, and wetland
reconstruction. Many students are choosing science fair projects
with a marine theme. In addition to regular science fair competi-
tion, these projects may be featured in statewide high school marine
science symposia, often sponsored by marine laboratories and
marine education organizations. The Massachusetts Marine Educa-
tors Association recently held its seventh high school marine studies
symposium.
Another trend in marine education is toward a more holistic
approach to related ecosystems. Watersheds, rivers, estuaries, and
the continental shelf are now viewed and studied as a continuum.
There is no longer the perception that the marine environment
begins at the shore, but rather the understanding that what happens
on the land is critical to coastal marine environments.
In marine education, scientific information is frequently accom-
panied by social studies that examine the historical and political
situation in which protection and management operate. Since
even food chains in the open ocean can be radically altered by
fishing practices available with modern technology, international
cooperation in management is necessary. In recognition of threats
to marine organisms and ecosystems, a very strong conservation
message is included in most marine education programs and
curricula.
Cooperative programs among informal educators, government
agencies, school systems, and funders also are becoming common.
Information and materials may be shared across geographic bound-
aries in programs, such as the NSF-funded cooperative program
24
' W ''
Bridget Sage ci
\ton net for aq>
ns. Her Lake Super
group uses a fluorescent
tracing dye to observe
how lake Twrrertts
transport material
along the shoreline.
between the Ocean Alliance's Project OCEAN, based in San Fran-
cisco, and the University of Texas Marine Laboratory, which will
bring Ocean Week to Texas and includes a strong English/Spanish
bilingual component.
Alternately, many agencies may cooperate in a regional project,
such as two elementary school publications on the Chesapeake Bay:
Bay EC's and The Changing Chesapeake. Started as a project of the
National Aquarium in Baltimore funded by Maryland's Chesapeake
Bay Trust, the project grew to include the USFWS, EPA, and private
funding, while Virginia's Council on the Environment, and the
Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay helped with distribution.
One area in which marine education needs constant updating
is in career information for secondary students. Career
options change with time, with changes in concerns, and the
introduction of new technology. The range of options in marine
careers is greater than, and very different from, what students
perceive from television. High school counselors need information
on the correct preparation required for a variety of marine careers.
One useful source of information is Opportunities in Marine and
Maritime Careers (second edition) by W. R. Heitzmann.
In short, K-12 marine education is alive and well, with an
expanding number of educators from both the classroom and
informal education working cooperatively to improve students'
understanding of the ocean and its inhabitants.
Valerie Chase was President of the National Marine Educators
Association from 1989 to 1990. She is Staff Biologist at the National
Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland.
To receive a list of contacts and addresses for groups mentioned in this
article, send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to Valerie Chase, National
Aquarium in Baltimore, Pier 3, 501 E. Pratt St., Baltimore, MD 21202-3194.
26
Editorial
A Proposal to
Meet Education
Challenges
by Arthur R. M. Nowell
and Charles D. Hollister
The awful truth is that no scientific discipline will ever again be fully funded.
— Eric Bloch, Director, National Science Foundation
/ think George would agree with investor Warren Bnffett, who says that long-
range planning has extreme limitations.. . What realh/ counts are the day to
day tilings. If yon do well in the short run, the long run will take care of
itself.
—William Bush on brother George
locial leaders and senior government admin-
istrators bemoan the absence of minorities
and women in the sciences and decry the
declining interest in science in the student
[population as a whole. But we are equally
assured by them that the incentives that we know work
to attract all students to science are not going to be
available in the future. The federal government will not
have the funds (see Bloch's statement above, and the
article by Williams on page 12) to provide the economic
incentives that worked in the 1960s.
Such a bleak view belies the opportunities that can
exist if the ocean sciences act in a unified manner in
cooperation with the federal agencies and equally im-
portant, if the federal agencies are willing to take risks
27
JOI Faculty
50-
45-
40
& 35 •
rt 30-
MH
O 25-
OJ
I 20-
I '5-
ID-
S'
0
I
) 32 34 36 38
on new strategies. The dramatic budget increases for the Science
and Engineering Education Directorate (SEE) at the National Science
Foundation (NSF) is tribute to the concern that the members of
Congress exhibit with respect to education. The question to
address is how can such increased resources even within one
agency be used wisely, and targeted to bring research and education
closer together.
There are three key elements to addressing the education needs
of the 1990s. First, we must recognize that "science educa-
tion" must be broken up into workable units and that to
address education uniformly in all of the sciences is to cloud the
issue. We must address the problems of each field of science and tie
education and human
resource issues together for
the individual field, recog-
nizing that each science may
play a different role in
education for different age
groups of students. For
example in oceanography,
we do not face a retirement
crisis in the 1990s as faced by
some other sciences; we face
the opposite problem of a
young field with little
prospect of major employ-
Iment opportunities for the
under-represented groups
that we have attracted into
the field in the last 10 years.
— BBBBBBBBBBBBB s-^ econd, the importance
40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70
Age Group (in years)
S
I of peer review in
selection of science
must be maintained and
enhanced, especially in the
more mission-oriented agencies. The coordination of federal
research on Global Change through the Council on Earth and
Environmental Sciences is hailed by Alan Bromley, Presidential
Science Advisor, as the right way to focus our national efforts in
research on global change. Yet cynics might argue that the focus of
the research efforts is being blunted and, like the Hubble telescope,
the focus is being lost because individual agencies are herding into
the global change programs their sacred cows, and not exposing
these efforts to outside peer review. Is it appropriate to leave to
federal managers the determination of scientific priorities on an
issue as important as global change? We emphasize this point
because Bromley has suggested that a similar federal coordinating
council on education be appointed next year.
28
The third element is that education and research must be more
closely tied together. The separation of education and human
resource issues from research is detrimental to both aspects of our
national competitiveness; within NSF, competition between SEE
and the research directorates personifies the issue. There is a need
to restructure this area so that education is tied to the individual
sciences; for oceanography, we put forward a draft plan for how
this could be achieved.
Wf have tended in this country to focus on a relatively short range. But
one of the functions of this office clearly is to back off and take a longer
strategic look.
— Alan Bromley, Presidential Science Advisor
We propose that to tie education and research together in
ocean sciences there already exist some sterling examples
of recent success. The Office of Naval Research (ONR)
during the last five years has initiated three programs that strike to
the core of the problem in oceanography.
First, ONR initiated a Secretary of the Navy Fellowship pro-
gram. It is clear that in the 1960s the rise in interest in graduate
science was supported (or led) by the availability of fellowships.
The dramatic decline in the availability of such fellowships from
NSF has contributed to the decline in numbers of science students.
Re-programming monies within the existing SEE budget at NSF to
increase significantly the number of such fellowships would have
an immediate and beneficial effect. The administration of such
fellowships could be handled by the science directorates at NSF so
that the important ties between research and education are strength-
ened.
The second program ONR initiated was the Ocean Science
Educator Award, which created new post-doctoral positions
and allied these positions with the best researchers and
educators in the field. The availability of post-doctoral fellowships
in science in the United States is very poor in comparison to their
availability in the health sciences. The National Institutes of Health
has approximately one post-doctoral fellowship for every two
graduates it supports as students. The ratio in the sciences and
engineering is approximately l-to-10. In ocean sciences, ONR
recognized this problem and created more post-doctoral positions
allied with the best teachers. Third, ONR introduced a small
program to bring college faculty from small liberal arts schools and
from historically black colleges and minority institutions to spend a
week at several major research universities and institutions. These
faculty members learn about new research and can pass onto their
students better scientific literacy, not only about the science itself,
but also what career alternatives and job opportunities exist in
oceanography.
Each science
must develop
its own plan
to attract the
best and the
brightest.
29
We conclude that these successful examples could be expanded
and readily applied to the NSF SEE directorate so that education at
the graduate and post-doctoral level is overseen by the scientists
and administered by the science directorates at NSF. Reprogram-
ming monies from within SEE could provide the resources to
address the education issues within the field of oceanography.
Other sciences face different human resource problems, so it is clear
that each science must develop its own plan to attract and retain the
best and the brightest.
A crucial ingredient for success is the need for the oceano-
graphic community itself to live up to its responsibilities as an
educational entity. A subset of the oceanographic academic com-
munity must develop a consensus plan on the educational responsi-
bilities, needs, and opportunities for oceanography. This plan could
be provided as the basis for planning by a coordinating council so
that long-range programs of support are not isolated in differing
agencies, or missing.
As a basis for such a plan we outline five areas in which such a
program could make a significant contribution.
The five areas are 1) elementary and secondary school level,
specifically in teacher preparation and instructional materials
development where there is presently a dearth of up-to-date,
expertly presented, scholarly material; 2) in informal education,
especially the use of telepresence to involve young persons in the
excitement of oceanographic discovery; 3) in undergraduate pro-
grams, especially in supporting undergraduates to spend part of
their time working in research laboratories, and in educating
humanities students as part of their science requirements; 4) in
graduate programs, especially in enhancing support for students
and pairing outstanding teachers and researchers with the best
students; and 5) at the professional level, addressing the challenge
of retaining recent doctorates in the field of oceanography. This last
area is one of deep concern as the field of oceanography is very
young, and the average age of the faculty is only 43. This means
that during the next decade there will be relatively few retirements
and thus little change in the demography of the practicing field.
Given the changing demography of the undergraduate and gradu-
ate populations, it is critical that innovative mechanisms to retain
new doctorates in oceanography be developed. If not, we will lose
some of the under-represented groups such as women and Asian
Americans.
We cannot in this editorial detail all the plans for the five areas,
but suffice to say there are real opportunities to develop new
textbooks, new source material appropriate for the young reader,
new reference material for the science teacher. There are ample
opportunities to capture the excitement of youngsters about the
ocean in conjunction with such entities as the Jason Foundation.
If in the next five years we do not face the challenges of retain-
ing women and minorities in the field, of exciting young people
about the ocean, and of educating the public on the role of the
oceans in national security, waste management, and global change,
we will indeed cede the future to other nations.
30
Undergraduate
and
Graduate Education
in Oceanography
by Arthur R. M. Nowell
and Charles D. Hollister
he education of a practicing oceanographer
can begin at the undergraduate level, or even
be deferred as late as a post-doctoral appoint-
ment. Because oceanography is a young
science in comparison to biology, geology, zoology, and
even meteorology, many who work in the field today
received their formal academic training in a wide variety
John Teal (above), a Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution, describes a cruise trawl sample to a biology student.
31
An under-
graduate
degree in the
field of
oceanography
is rare because
few colleges
offer such
specializa-
tion.
of other sciences, entering the discipline only after completing
formal degree training. But during the last 30 years, there has been
a burgeoning of universities and research institutions offering
graduate degree programs in oceanography, and even some that
offer undergraduate degrees in the subject.
In the last 10 years, most people entering the field of oceanogra-
phy have obtained a degree in one of its subfields (geological,
physical, chemical, and biological oceanography). But while there
are many graduate programs in oceanography, there are relatively
few undergraduate degree programs. However, the opportunity to
learn about oceanography at a university does not mean one has to
get a degree in the subject.
For many undergraduates, the best opportunity to learn about
the ocean occurs in the survey courses offered at the introduc-
tory level. Such descriptive courses, which often fulfill
university science distribution requirements for humanities and arts
students, do not require the mathematics and physics background
needed for virtually all advanced courses, but they do offer students
a chance to learn about the interplay of how the waters of the ocean
are formed and move around the planet from a biological, chemical,
and physical point of view.
An undergraduate degree in oceanography is rare in the field
because very few universities offer such a specialization. Although
many universities and colleges offer bachelor's degrees in marine
biology, such a specialization is a very small component of the
overall field. An undergraduate degree in oceanography covers the
physics of the ocean, namely how the currents, tides, and turbulence
affect the movement of the stratified waters of the ocean; the
chemistry of seawater and the importance of nutrients to the
development of marine life; the history of the formation of the
oceans, the generation of new oceanic crust at mid-ocean ridges, and
the transport of sediments from the land around the seafloor. Such
breadth of coverage, mostly descriptive, however, can only be
achieved at the sacrifice of in-depth specifics. Thus an oceanogra-
phy undergraduate degree is often described as a "liberal science
major."
The value of the oceanography undergraduate degree rests less
in preparation for graduate study, and more on the fact that
the graduate has been exposed to the important interactions
between the physical environment and the biological consequences
of perturbations. Unlike botany or zoology, for example, where the
animal or plant becomes the entire focus, a degree in oceanography
lets the student understand that it is the interaction between the
physical environment and the organism that is important, and that
rarely can one isolate a single species for special consideration
without making very dangerous assumptions about the consequent
effects of one's actions.
Most undergraduates in oceanography continue in the field on
32
graduation — most often
working for the growing
number of environmental and
waste management companies,
public interest groups, or state
and federal regulatory
agencies.
There are more than 60
institutions in the
country that offer
doctoral degrees in oceanogra-
phy, but of these, just 10
dominate the field of "blue
water" oceanography — that is,
the field of ocean science that
extends beyond coastal or estuarine studies and incorporates open
ocean research. These 10 schools, known as Joint Oceanographic
Institutions (JOI),* not only grant the overwhelming majority of
doctoral degrees in the United States, but also are the nation's
largest oceanographic research centers.
The obvious tie between graduate education and research is
nowhere more clear than in the work conducted aboard a research
vessel or on an open ocean cruise. The scientific party usually
comprises approximately six professors and scientists, 10 techni-
cians with engineering degrees or master's degrees in oceanogra-
phy, and 10 students. The cruise most often contributes a key
component to various doctoral and some master's theses.
Many students in oceanography not only get to design a field
study and collect data, they also confront the challenge of trying to
interpret the information that comes back. Thus, oceanography
students are neither laboratory bound, nor slaves to theory. The
field offers each student the challenge of identifying a problem and
deciding what area will yield the most important results first -
theory, laboratory observation, or field data collection.
The field of oceanography can be compared to a small town,
even though the centers of study are widely distributed along the
nation's coastlines. With approximately 500 faculty
and 1,000 students at the 10 JOI schools, virtually
everyone is known to one another. Thus, the best
and brightest doctoral students are known through-
out the community well before they graduate.
n describing the size, characteristics, and
changes that have occurred to the student
oceanographic population during the last 10
years, our observations are based on data collected
from the 10 JOI schools. Although it represents only
10 of the 60 schools, these 10 produce 85 percent of
the Ph.D.'s in ocean sciences. They also carry out
*JOI Members: University of Hawaii at Manoa; Scripps Institution of Ocean-
ography, La Jolla, CA; Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University;
Texas A&M University; University of Miami; University of Texas-Institute for
Geophysics; Oregon State University; University of Washington/Seattle;
University of Rhode Island /Kingston; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
In the roil and roll of
the sea, scientists
(above) launch a
rosette conductivity,
temperature, and depth
sampler (CTD) during
a warm core ring
study.
Kim Warner (below), a
WHOI summer
student fellow,
conducts lab research.
I
Applications to JOI Schools
1400
1200-
1000-
</>
.2 800 •
8
"a, 600-
<
400-
200-
0-
78 79 '80 '81 '82
800-
700-
600-
| 500-
1 400-
"&H
,£•300-
200-
100-
0-
Phi/sicnl
Chemical
approximately 80 percent of the funded research in oceanography.
Traditionally, the largest subdiscipline of oceanography has
been biological oceanography. Marine geology, because of its
applicability to offshore mining and oil drilling, has been the next
largest. The smallest subfields have been physical oceanography
and chemical oceanography. Taken together, applications to these
four subdisciplines have started to rebound. In fact, the upward
curve of applications has been driven by the overwhelming drop in
the number of biological oceanography applications.
The upsurge in environmental interest, reminiscent of the late
1960s, is producing an increase in applications again. Public-
ity about global warming, sea-level rise, and waste disposal
have resulted in increased student awareness of oceanography as a
viable career path. But there are important differences today in the
upsurge of interest in the ocean compared to those concerns advo-
cated by Cousteau in the 1970s. Today there is a much greater
realization that the ocean is coupled to the atmosphere, and that to
understand even the
seemingly simplest
biological questions,
one must under-
stand the physics
and chemistry of the
ocean.
The upswing in
applications during
the last six years is
gratifying as there
has been talk during
this period of a
declining interest in
science overall in the
United States.
However, there are
very few oceanogra-
phy applications
overall when
compared to the
total pool — on
average about 20
from each state!
There are approxi-
mately 10,000
Bachelor of Science
degrees awarded in
physics each year in
the nation, and yet
only 200 applica-
'83 '84 '85 '86 '87
'89
Applications by Option
78 79 '80 '81 '82 '83 '84 '85 '86
'87 '88 '89
34
tions are received in physical oceanography. In tracing applications
across the oceanographic schools, a total of 1,200 applications come
from only 700 persons, with 500 applying to only one school.
These students also are applying to other graduate programs,
mainly in the discipline in which they received their undergraduate
degrees. Thus, there are only 200 students who apply to a range of
graduate programs in oceanography who are committed to getting
their graduate degree in the field. Such small numbers lead to an
important effect — the good applicants are intensely recruited, often
receiving offers from several of the best institutions in addition to
others.
While the numbers of applications have changed during the
last 10 years from the heyday of Cousteau-based interest,
the number of students in residence has remained more
or less constant. Each year, approximately 200 students are admit-
ted to the graduate programs at the 10 JOI institutions. So for the
last 10 years enrollments have remained constant at approximately
1,000 students-in-residence.
However, during these last 10 years, two notable changes have
occurred. Marine geology and geophysics is now larger than
biological oceanography, a trend due in large measure to a greater
proportion of students in marine geology staying on to complete a
Ph.D. In the past they would leave after completing a master's
degree to work in
the oil industry.
The depression in
that industry
through the latter
part of the 1980s left
few job opportuni-
ties and so many
students decided to
stay on for a doc-
toral degree.
Second, the decline
in numbers of
biological oceanog-
raphy students in
residence reflects a
decline in the
availability of
funding for such students.
A significant growth in the numbers of physical oceanographers
reflects both growing efforts by this segment of the field to attract
and retain good students and the availability of funding. Physical
oceanography is presently the largest field in terms of research
funding, and there are many more job opportunities in this area
now than in any other.
Students in Residence
400-
350-
300-
c
01
250-
Z 100-
50-
Biological
Geological
Pin/si cal
Chemical
1
1
1
1
1
1
78 79 '80 '81 '82 '83 '84 '85 '86
1 1
'87
1
'88 '89
35
45-
40-
35-
30-
15
10
5-
0
Ph.D.'s Produced
77
78 79
Biological
While approximately 200 students enter graduate programs
each year, about 100 obtain doctoral degrees. This 50 percent
"success" rate is normal for a scientific field where there are job
opportunities associated with master's degrees. The majority of
those students who leave after completing a master's program work
for the federal government in agencies such as the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), or for the many consult-
ing firms specializing in environmental management.
Doctorates in physical oceanography have the easiest time
finding employment. Approximately 18 students a year
finish with such degrees and about 50 percent enter educa-
tion and research at universities, with a further 25 percent entering
government laboratories or research agencies. With such small
absolute numbers, it is hardly surprising that most students will be
well known throughout the community before they graduate. For
the best students,
there are offers of
postdoctoral
appointments.
The opportunity to
travel, to be based
in a coastal city, and
to study the envi-
ronment are most
often cited as the
reasons why
students choose
oceanography.
Ambitions to feed
the world, save the
whales, or stave off
global warming are
mentioned, but most students select their graduate school as often
for family and personal reasons as for reasons of scholarship.
Financial constraints rarely enter into the decision as the over-
whelming majority of graduate students are supported throughout
their graduate career on research or teaching assistantships or on
scholarships. Because the stipends from these sources of support
are quite similar, rarely do competing economic variables enter into
the decision as to which graduate school to attend.
The quality of graduate programs varies among the 10 JOI
schools as does areas of greatest expertise. But broadly
speaking, to get into one of the schools requires a high grade
point average, Graduate Record Exam scores in the 80th percentile
or higher, and a strong background in one of the basic sciences.
Strong undergraduate preparation in mathematics, chemistry, and
physics is required in addition to an overwhelming amount of
energy and curiosity.
'80 '81
'82
'83 '84 '85 '86 '87
Geological
Physical
Chemical
36
The decline in interest in science in the United States in the
1980s, coupled with the decline in the number of teenagers, is often
linked with the increase in enrollment of foreign students. Some 30
percent of oceanography students today are foreign nationals, an
increase from about 20 percent in 1980. While the increase has been
driven mainly by applications from China, applications are widely
received from throughout the world because many countries do not
offer doctorates in oceanography.
But overall, the increase in foreign student enrollment is much
less than that observed in other sciences, in large measure
because during this same time period there has been a very
dramatic increase in the number of applications from women in the
United States.
It is tempting to think that most of the women in oceanography
are marine biologists, as so often depicted in Time or Newsweek.
However, the last 10 years have seen a steady increase in women
entering all areas of oceanography, including physical and chemical
oceanography.
This long overdue trend has been achieved because women
have been accepted in the field for many years, seagoing cruises are
integrated, and an increasing number of women on graduating are
entering the professoriate. The reasons for the increased number of
women in the field are twofold: because there are now sufficient
numbers of women in graduate school, new women entering do not
feel isolated or out of place, and, equally important, women now
entering the field have superior qualifications to some of those who
proceeded them. The small size of the field, the camaraderie
developed by going on cruises, and the increasing commitment by
faculty to enhancing graduate education for women have all com-
bined to provide a very supportive environment.
However, the success rate for women completing doctoral
degrees is slightly below that of men, based on a very limited data
set. To examine relative success rates, it is necessary to follow each
student from entry to completion. Our conclusions are drawn from
a study of data from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the University of
Washington.
The average success rates for completing doctoral degrees in
oceanography during a 12-year period were 74 percent for
male students and 60 percent for female students. This lower
success rate is regrettably typical of the sciences in general. All
schools are stepping up their efforts to increase the success rates and
improve the working environment.
The recruitment of minorities into oceanography also is making
progress, though at a slower pace. Today about 3 percent of en-
rolled graduate students in oceanography are from minority groups.
A doctorate in oceanography will not likely lead to a fortune. With
about 75 percent of the doctorates in oceanography entering univer-
The last 10
years have seen
a steady
increase in
women
entering all
areas of
oceanography.
37
sities or government service, salaries are competitive (a starting
assistant professor receives about $40,000 a year, and rises to about
$70,000 as a full professor. Fame often comes early, for oceanogra-
phy offers rich opportunity for discoveries of immediate and lasting
importance to humanity. But the greatest reward comes from being
a member of an elite group of scientists who get to go where few
people venture, and to have a chance to think about how two thirds
of the planet works. The pleasure of working in a small collegial
department, largely focused on graduate education and research,
leads to an enviable life. Students and faculty alike have the luxury
and the delight of thinking about the blue planet; spending weeks at
sea is just one of the unique rewards for those students who seek an
adventurous graduate career.
Professor Arthur R. M. Nowell is Director of the School of Oceanog-
raphy at the University of Washington. Charles D. Hollister is Vice
President and Associate Director for External Affairs at the Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution. He formerly was Dean of Graduate
Studies at WHOI.
Picture Credits
p. 2, top: courtesy of Sea Grant College Program, University of
Delaware, p. 2, middle: courtesy of Sea Grant College Program,
University of Minnesota, p. 2, bottom: courtesy of Sea Grant Institute,
University of Wisconsin, p. 3, top, middle and bottom: courtesy of
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, pp. 4-5, 11,53: original
artwork by Sig Purwin, Woods Hole, MA. p. 9, top: by Bob Bowden,
courtesy of University of Delaware Sea Grant College Program.
p. 12: by Larry Shumaker, courtesy U.S. Navy. p. 17: by Shelley Lauzon,
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, p. 20, top and bottom: courtesy
University of North Carolina Sea Grant Program, p. 20, middle:
courtesy University of Minnesota, Sea Grant College Program, p. 21:
courtesy University of Minnesota, Sea Grant College Program, p. 23: by
Mel Goodwin, South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium, p. 25: courtesy
University of Michigan Sea Grant Program, p. 31: by Vicky Cullen,
courtesy Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, p. 33, top: by Peter
Wiebe, courtesy Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, p. 33, bottom:
by Robert Brown, courtesy Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
p. 39: courtesy University of North Carolina Sea Grant Program, p. 41:
courtesy University of Hawaii Sea Grant Program, p. 46: courtesy Sea
Education Association, p. 47, top: by Carin Ashjian, courtesy Sea
Education Association, p. 47, bottom: by Benjamin Mindlowitz, Sea
Education Association, p. 51: by Stephen F. Rose, East Falmouth, MA.
pp. 55, 57: courtesy Mystic Seaport Museum pp. 63, 65, top and bottom:
courtesy Massachusetts Maritime Academy, p. 70: courtesy Tom Toles,
The Buffalo News.
38
Sea Grant's Role in
Education
by Robert D. Wildman
and David A. Ross
An NSF study
concludes
that the U.S.
faces a short-
fall of about
500,000
scientists and
engineers by
the end of the
decade.
I ever before have scientific and environmental issues
dominated the actions of countries and the concerns of
individuals as they do today. Despite the fact that these
issues are covered almost daily on the front pages of
I our newspapers and featured on the evening TV news,
a major shortage of scientists and engineers is projected in the
United States by the end of this decade. There are only a few
programs in the United States that are striving to increase the
numbers of marine scientists and engineers. One that is active in the
marine area is the National Sea Grant College Program, which is
part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) in the U.S. Department of Commerce.
In a 1989 study, the National Science Foundation (NSF) con-
cluded that the United States faces a shortfall of about 500,000
scientists and engineers by the end of the 20th century and that the
number could increase to 675,000 by the year 2006. One simple
reason is that college-age students will number only 24 million in
the mid-1990s, whereas they were 30 million strong in 1980. On top
of this reduction in the available population, only a small portion,
about 5 percent, of these students will actually earn a bachelor's
degree in science.
A number of reasons have been proposed for the decreased
interest and enrollment in science fields. These include the above
mentioned decline in the number of U.S. college-age students,
which in turn leads to a reduction in the total number of students in
all fields. Most of the science community's attention, however, has
been directed toward the decreasing proportion of all students now
entering science fields versus other careers. Possible causes for this
range from the perceived difficulty of science education, to boring
course materials, to uninspiring or poorly trained teachers. Of the
few students who plan to major in science or engineering when they
enter college, more than half fail to receive their degrees in these
fields. This is attributed to students finding the course work too
difficult, finding other fields more interesting, or believing the job
prospects to be better in other fields.
One way to improve this situation is to attract larger numbers
of women and minorities to science and engineering.
Women at present earn about a third of the doctorates
awarded in science, but most tend to be in the social sciences and
psychology. For Blacks and Hispanics, the situation is even less
favorable. While Blacks constitute 12 percent of the population,
they only hold about 2 percent of the scientific and engineering
positions. Hispanics constitute close to 9 percent of the population
and they, too, only hold about 2 percent of the science and engineer-
ing positions.
In 1989, nearly 9,600 Americans received Ph.D.'s in the natural
sciences and engineering. Only 133 of these were awarded to Blacks
(of a total 811 in all fields), and this was the highest number yet
40
achieved. Of these 133, only three were in the Earth, marine, and
atmospheric fields, or less than 0.5 percent of those awarded in 1989.
Asians received 427 Ph.D.'s in science and engineering (out of a total
of 624); for Hispanics, the numbers were 186 of 569, and for Ameri-
can Indians, 37 of 93.
On the other hand, a third of the earned Ph.D.'s went to
foreigners studying in the United States. These small
numbers of minorities in the sciences are a national shame;
there are scientific opportunities for women and minorities in
science, particularly in
marine sciences, that
should be tapped. In-
deed, if the predicted
shortfall is to be avoided,
large numbers of women
and minorities must be
attracted to scientific or
technical careers.
In the United States,
the training of marine
scientists at the Ph.D. or
master's level has fre-
quently been a controver-
sial matter. One school of
thought prefers that
students be fully trained
in the fundamentals of a
basic science (for ex-
ample, biology), and in
their thesis research-and
later in their careers apply
this basic knowledge to
the marine environment.
The other position holds
that students should be
exposed in their training
to all fields of marine
science, but specialize in
one specific subdiscipline
- for example biological oceanography. Surprisingly, feelings often
run strong concerning which of these two procedures should be
used. At the risk of a pun, the argument may just be academic for
the 21st century.
There are three major problems that the marine scientific
community must solve in training the necessary talent
needed for the coming century. These are 1) the general lack
of national interest in science as a career among college-age and
younger students; 2) the changing skills needed by oceanographers
In a subsea setting,
students (above) map
and survey marine
archaeology during a
University of Hawaii
Sea Grant workshop at
Oahu. They home in
(below) on the remains
of a light beacon.
41
in the 21st century; and 3) the impact of "big" science and advanc-
ing technology on the individual researcher and graduate student.
These hurdles can be overcome, but it will take a national effort.
Marine science is undergoing some major changes. This in-
cludes the realization that the oceans play a critical role in the
worldwide process of global change. To answer some of the ques-
tions related to global change, several new, large-scale research
programs have been developed. These will be decade-long in
duration and involve innovative ways of collecting data, such as by
satellites. The oceanographer who will work in these programs will
be different from the sea-going scientist of years past, as familiarity
with computers may become more important than sea-going skills.
Real possibilities exist for making inroads on the three problems
cited above through marine education and training programs. The
National Sea Grant College Program sponsors work in marine
research, marine education, and marine advisory services (see
Oceaiius, Vol. 31, No. 3). Through its network of participating
academic institutions, Sea Grant has been actively involved in
increasing the supply of well-trained, and educated specialists in
marine science and marine affairs, and in making the public better
informed about the wise use and protection of the marine environ-
ment and its resources.
Sea Grant's marine educational activities can be categorized as
follows:
Course Development and Student Projects: Includes efforts to
improve undergraduate and graduate level instructional programs
in marine sciences and related fields. The projects help universities
introduce new knowledge and methodologies into their instruc-
tional programs. Federal support is offered for a short period of
time and only for development efforts that clearly exceed normal
university resources available for this program.
Research Assistantships: The estimated numbers of graduate
research assistants (GRA's) who have received at least partial
support from Sea Grant in recent years are shown on page 43. Note
that the table includes all the GRA's supported by Sea Grant, not
just those in separate education projects.
Elementary and Secondary Education and Teacher Training:
Investigators supported by these projects develop educational
materials to be used in elementary and secondary classrooms,
evaluate and disseminate the materials, and instruct teachers in
their use. They also provide back-up support to teachers and
administrators who are trying to introduce marine and aquatic
education into their school systems.
Non-Formal Education: Includes marine and aquatic educa-
tional activities that occur outside formal classroom structures. The
potential audience is the entire American public in all its diversity.
Activities typically include lectures, conferences, 4-H and Scout
projects, beach walks, and radio and television shows. These
42
Numbers of Graduate Research Assistants (GRA's)
Supported by Sea Grant in Past Decade
Fiscal Year
The numbers refer only to graduate research assistants, while graduate students
who work in education, marine advisory service, and program administration are omitted
activities often take place at science centers, museums, and aquaria.
Technical and Vocational Education: Includes projects to
begin technical training, vocational training, and pre-baccalaureate
technical training programs that typically are offered at junior or
community colleges and technical institutes.
Sea Grant Fellowship Program: Includes projects intended to
help stimulate interest in marine careers among those whose
background or previous training might not have generated such
interest.
Sea Grant Fellows (John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow-
ship): This program supports highly qualified and motivated
graduate students while they work on marine policy issues for one
year in the legislative or executive branch of the federal govern-
ment. The program is intended to round out a student's academic
training and give him or her some experience at the federal policy-
making level. The program has been in existence since 1979 and has
supported 152 students to date. Public Law 100-200 renamed it the
Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship Program after the
former Dean of the Graduate School of Oceanography at the
University of Rhode Island and current NOAA Administrator.
The total amount spent in these categories was $4,941,000 in
Fiscal Year 89, of which $3,023,000 comes directly from NOAA Sea
Grant, and $1,918,000 was matched or in-kind support from partici-
pating institutions.
Sea Grant-supported college graduates include not only some in
the classical fields of oceanography, but also many trained as
marine specialists in law, economics and social sciences, medicine
and pharmacology, engineering, and transportation and energy.
43
Some 10,000
students
to date
have been
supported
by Sea Grant
in various
marine fields
The number of students supported by Sea Grant to date is ap-
proaching 10,000. Concurrently, hundreds of thousands of adults
are reached through Sea Grant's Marine Advisory Service and
Communications Programs with information on ocean and Great
Lakes resource concerns.
National Marine Educators Association: In the 1960s and 70s,
Sea Grant was one of the few organizations supporting marine
education. Some of this support helped start the National Marine
Educators Association (NMEA). NMEA was officially formed in
1976, although an "unofficial" group of individuals interested in
marine education had been meeting since the mid-1960s. NMEA is
now an independent organization with 15 regional chapters and
more than 1,500 members. It holds annual and regional meetings
and publishes a magazine: Current — The Journal of Marine Education.
Among the purposes of NMEA, many of which parallel Sea
Grant's interests and help in developing marine scientists, are:
•To provide a medium for the exchange of information and teaching
materials;
•To stress the interrelationships of marine education to all disciplines and
other educational experiences;
•To make available to educators information concerning the selection,
organization, and presentation of marine materials at all levels; and
•To work for the improvement of the professional qualifications of marine
educators.
What then can marine science in general, and the Sea Grant
Program in particular, do to contribute to solving the dilemma of
reduced graduates in the sciences? Clearly, they cannot and should
not attempt to reshape the entire U.S. science education field, an
approach more appropriate for the National Science Foundation.
Rather, Sea Grant should use its limited resources in complemen-
tary approaches that can make contributions for which the marine
sciences have unique capabilities.
The oceans and the organisms that inhabit them still have a
romantic allure for most people. Professionals involved in marine
education in any capacity can take advantage of that fact to interest
young people in science careers and the marine sciences in particu-
lar. During their educational development, students can be made
aware of the wide variety of career fields open to them, many of
which do not require a Ph.D. While a solid foundation in math-
ematics and natural sciences is a requirement for several career
paths, it can be attained in a way that is much more appealing and
less threatening to students.
In the realm of elementary and secondary educational pro-
grams, Sea Grant can enhance its efforts to make available stimulat-
ing instructional materials that can be infused into K-12 curricula in
nonscience as well as science courses. This approach could lead to
44
more student awareness of and interest in science as a field and in
marine science affairs specifically.
Communicating the many problems and opportunities involved
in human interaction with the marine environment should be
simplified and expanded to reach a wider public audience. Casting
a larger net on marine issues to the public could increase interest in
the pursuit of marine science careers.
Then enters the national priority of teaching the teachers.
Improving curricula and enhancing out-of-classroom experi-
ences for science teachers at the K-12 and post-secondary
levels should translate back into increased career interest by the
student population. At the graduate school level, assistantships and
pre- and post-doctoral fellowships should be targeted toward
specific job categories to fill identified needs, and toward minorities
and women to take advantage of these increasingly important
sources of marine careerists.
As with most problems facing us today, the balancing of supply
and demand for marine science and marine affair specialists is not
likely to yield to singular, simplistic solutions. Only carefully
considered, multiple approaches are likely to lead to the desired
results during this and the next decade.
Robert D. Wildman is Director of the National Sea Grant College
Program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
David A. Ross is a Senior Scientist in the Geology and Geophysics
Department at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He also is
director of the Sea Grant Program at WHOI.
Teaching
teachers is a
national
priority as is
expanding
public aware-
ness of the
opportunities
and problems
in the marine
arena.
The authors would like to thank Judith Fenwick and Victor Omelczenko for
their reviews and comments on this article. Much of the information
related to the problem and shortage of scientists in the future was reported
by R. Atkinson in the April 27, 1990, issue of Science magazine (Vol. 248, p
425-432).
45
The Ocean
as a
Classroom
The Role of Practical
Experience in
Science Education
by Susan E. Humphris
here have been numer-
ous reports recently
calling for a nationwide
reform in science educa-
tion. The American
Association for the Advancement of
Science has sponsored two such
reports, Science for AH Americans:
Project 2061, and The Liberal Art of
Science: Agenda for Action. These
reports highlight two major concerns
of science educators.
The first concern is the need to
develop a citizenry with a level of
scientific understanding sufficient to
make informed policy decisions
concerning scientific and technologi-
cal advances. The second concern is
the need to ensure a continued
supply of highly motivated students entering scientific
careers.
These reports have emphasized familiarity with the
natural world as a basic dimension of science literacy.
They also have recommended that major curricular
changes be made to include natural sciences as part of a
liberal arts education.
In the last few years, there also has been increasing
recognition of the impact of human activities and
advances in technology on our planet. Although much
concern has been generated by highly publicized
catastrophes, both real and threatened, such as oil spills,
plastic pollution, and global warming, there is growing
interest and fear about the long-term habitability and
survival of the Earth.
The oceans are an excellent place for understanding
these concerns and their long-term implications, and
they are an excellent place to teach science.
As a natural system, the oceans present physical,
chemical, geological, and biological principles in a
dynamic environment that everyone can readily appre-
ciate. Their high level of complexity and degree of unpredictability
allow students at any level to carry out experiments and answer
their own questions.
The oceans involve students in multi-disciplinary problems that
cut across traditional subject boundaries. Furthermore, the oceans'
fluid nature and worldwide circulation mean that local activities
affecting the marine environment can have a global impact. The
oceans integrate environmental awareness and science education.
Use of the marine environment to teach science so far has been
relatively unexploited. There is a tendency to view marine science
as the domain of scientists conducting research in private and
government institutions, colleges, and universities.
In fact, students
seriously interested in
pursuing graduate
studies in the field are
advised to first obtain a
firm grounding in the
basic sciences while
undergraduates so they
may apply this to the
ocean system at a later
stage. But without
some early, engaging
exposure to learning
about the ocean, how
do young people
Rebecca Buchthal
(above) aboard the SSV
Westward presents her
research on Florida 's
spiny lobsters.
Sea Semester students
(below) deploy a
Neuston net from SSV
Westward.
Simple
observations
of the oceans
can be used to
introduce
basic
physical,
chemical, and
biological
principles.
become motivated to pursue careers as marine scientists?
In a recent informal survey of a group of practicing oceanogra-
phers conducted by Dr. Leslie K. Rosenfeld (a physical oceanogra-
pher at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and
Atmospheric Sciences), the most important experience that deter-
mined their career choice was participation in research which, for
many, occurred during summer field courses. Incorporation of the
ocean system into science curricula at all educational levels can only
serve to increase awareness about marine research and the possibili-
ties for careers in the marine field. This is critical if there is to be a
continuing supply of students entering careers in marine science.
For the typical liberal arts student, who is going to pursue a
non-scientific career and yet will be faced with public policy
decisions that are based on scientific arguments, basic science
courses can seem abstract and irrelevant to their daily experiences
and something to be avoided. However, most students today are
concerned about preservation of the environment. Converting this
interest into creative inquiry, bolstered by explanation of observa-
tions, is a powerful way to involve students in science.
For younger students, simple observations about our oceans can
be used to introduce basic physical, chemical, and biological prin-
ciples in the context of the natural world, as opposed to teaching
exclusively from abstract examples out of textbooks or from experi-
ments that have little to do with the students' life experiences.
At higher levels, students apply this knowledge of basic scien-
tific principles to investigate further the characteristics of the ocean
system. In essence, structuring the learning of science around
observations of the students' own world brings relevancy to what is
viewed by many as an esoteric and abstract subject. The excitement
of "discovery" is an important part of scientific inquiry that can be
realized when students make their own observations of the world
around them.
Clearly any educational reforms that emphasize the applica-
tion of scientific inquiry into the natural world must involve
students in some practical experiences. During the last 19
years, the Sea Education Association (SEA) in Woods Hole, Massa-
chusetts, has been experimenting with this idea, initially with
undergraduates selected from universities all over the country.
More recently, SEA's programs have involved school teachers in an
effort to help them make science learning at other educational levels
more relevant and exciting.
The theme of SEA's programs is the marine environment as
seen through application of scientific research at sea. In the under-
graduate program, basic scientific principles are used to explain
how our oceans work. In the teachers' programs, the oceans are
used as a theme to introduce basic scientific principles into the
classroom.
A brief description of the structure of SEA's undergraduate
48
program known as "Sea Semester" is necessary in order to put
further comments into context. Each Sea Semester is designed to be
part of an undergraduate liberal arts education. Presently, 50
percent of those students attending SEA are science majors, 45
percent are non-science majors, and 5 percent have not yet declared
their major.
The semester-long program is dedicated to learning about many
aspects of the ocean world through six weeks of course work ashore
in Oceanography, Nautical Science, and Maritime Studies. This is
followed by six weeks aboard a research sailing vessel, during
which the students participate in research as well as vessel opera-
tions.
One of the most important outcomes of developing a pro-
gram around a natural system is its approach, which by
necessity is multi-disciplinary and integrated. In general,
conventional science programs do not explore the interrelations
among the sciences in a situation that is meaningful to the
students, much less the interrelations between the sciences and
non-sciences.
Students are commonly unaware that the physical principles
determining weather patterns and wind directions also can be
applied to ocean circulation. Or that oceanographic characteristics
often play a vital role in fisheries disputes. Or that in steering a
vessel by magnetic compass while accounting for variation, they are
using the same physical phenomena that geologists use to date the
ocean floor. In addition, incorporating maritime literature written
from the forecastle and the quarterdeck enhances the students' own
experiences of going to sea.
Practical experience also gives students an opportunity to
conduct research and discover the way science progresses. Typi-
cally, science courses become means of transmitting factual informa-
tion through lectures, textbooks, and laboratory activities. Students
are presented with "the scientific method" as dogma, and follow it
carefully in lab exercises. Once given a chance to conduct scientific
research, students quickly realize there are many approaches to
appreciating that research requires creativity, both in the design of a
project and in the interpretation of data. And that "doing science"
only means adopting a creative, rigorous, and logical approach to
finding the answer to a question.
The limitations of conventional methods of teaching science
become evident as SEA students go through the process of
designing and completing their research projects. For many of
them, especially those with perhaps only one college-level science
course, this is the first time they have been expected to complete a
scientific research project, and they are filled with apprehension
about their ability to handle independent research.
The science courses they have taken have not given them an
appreciation of how to go about scientific inquiry. Though they
Conventional
science
programs do
not explore
the
interrelations
among the
sciences in a
way that is
meaningful to
students.
49
Trying to
collect data
on the high
seas quickly
dispels the
glamour of
working in
the ocean as
typically
portrayed by
the media.
have been involved in "hands-on" science projects, they find
themselves ill-prepared for in-depth research. This suggests that
"hands-on" learning can be as ineffective as any other teaching
technique unless the students' interest is aroused, their minds
involved, and they have some responsibility for the results. This
latter stipulation, responsibility for the results of their actions,
whether it be deciding where to take a sample or changing the
ship's course to reach the next science station, is critical to successful
education in a practical, "hands-on" situation.
There is an interesting consequence of science being presented
in the conventional way through textbooks, which typically
present ideas, facts, and laboratory exercises that always
work and usually reconfirm or demonstrate an already known fact.
That consequence occurs when students go in the field and collect
data for a project, and discover that they are not prepared for the
possibility that their data may not fit their hypotheses. The common
responses from astonished students are that their project "has not
worked" or their data "are wrong!" The idea that perhaps their
original hypothesis was incorrect does not occur to them. They are
simply used to lab activities that work and prove a point.
Another important aspect of practical experience in science
education is the exposure of students to the realities of working
within the system they are studying. Natural systems are complex,
unpredictable, and continuously changing. Trying to collect data in
a torrential rainfall or in high seas quickly dispels the glamor of
working in the ocean as typically highlighted by the media. The
difficulties that marine scientists face in conducting research also are
conveyed by this experience, and this increases students' awareness
that limitations are imposed on the scientists' ability to further
knowledge.
The type of program described here involving intensive study
of the ocean system is best suited to the undergraduate level.
Presently, there are a number of marine field stations that
offer programs to college students, thereby providing valuable
opportunities for practical experience for both the science and non-
science major.
Of 34 organizations surveyed in 1989, there were 131 different
courses offered of a week or longer in duration by 23 organizations
(25 responded to the survey). Of these, the majority were courses in
a specialized topic, with only 9 percent providing general marine
science or oceanographic experience. If the goal is to produce a
citizenry informed about the oceans, the number of multi-disciplin-
ary courses needs to be increased.
But studies of the ocean can begin long before the college level
as a way to introduce students to basic scientific principles. Al-
though it is unrealistic to expect every student to learn all they can
about science through direct observation of the natural world,
classroom and field activities can be developed that allow students
50
* I
to "discover" scientific ideas.
If the concept of marine
science as one of the themes
for science education is to be
enhanced, teachers must
become acquainted with the
subject material, become
excited about the marine
environment, and develop
classroom and field activities
that illustrate underlying
scientific principles. Examples of such activities include introducing
waves and their general characteristics by direct observations or in a
simple wave tank, studying buoyancy and Archimedes' principle
through loading and unloading model boats, teaching vectors using
navigation problems, and illustrating density by modelling deep
ocean circulation.
These ideas will take time to develop, but the outcome could
provide the next generation with an appreciation of the relevance of
science to themselves and to the future of their environment.
Students work in the
shipboard lab complet-
ing analyses on their
individual research
projects.
Susan Humphris is Dean of the Sea Education Association and an
Adjunct Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Results of the 1990 Readership Survey
To the 2,500+ persons who responded to the Readership Survey distributed last
Spring, we thank you for answering the questions, and for offering your valuable
comments. We received numerous requests to publish the results, so we note some
of the highlights here.
Quality o/Oceanus:
• More than 95 percent of the respondents found the magazine to be
accessible, with understandable and informative illustrations, and
good or excellent editorial quality. Ninety percent felt that the design
of the publication was attractive. Ninety-two percent refer to back
copies of Oceanus occasionally or frequently, and most retain their
copies for four or more years.
Demographics:
• Seventy-seven percent Male and 23 percent Female; average age is
49 years.
Employment:
• Thirty-four percent of the respondents are employed in an academic
field, 27 percent in a field of applied marine science, and 13 percent in
the military.
Educational Background:
• Fifty-six percent hold graduate degrees of which more than 23
percent are doctorates.
51
Muses
in the
Rigging
Music, Education, and the Sea
by Tom Goux
ust what might Terpsichore and Calliope have to say
to Clio and Urania about Poseidon's mysterious
domain? On occasion I have seen the muses of
singing and poetry consult with the muses of history
and science — regarding how mortals come to learn
about the sea.
Tell me, Muse, about the man of many turns, who many
Ways ivandered when he had sacked Troy's holy citadel;
He saw the cities of many men, and he knew their thought;
On the ocean he suffered many pains within his heart,
Striving for his life . . .
— Homer, opening lines of Odyssey
The sea and music: big subjects. For tellers-of-tales, for poets
and bards through the ages, the sea is music. From Homer to
Hemingway, there is the echo of the howling sea-storm, the pulse of
the rolling swell. In this electronic century, composers like Claude
Debussy, Benjamin Britten, and Percy Grainger have set great
symphonic tides in motion as the sound of their music has washed
over the entire globe. For them, for me, for many, music is a sea: a
wondrous, deep expanse filled with wonder and surprise.
Music holds and sometimes hides secrets of an astonishing past
and offers for our discovery, myriad possibilities, pleasures, and
puzzlements. And this, of course, is how the teachers and students
of things maritime and marine view the ocean.
"Wouldst thou," — so the helmsman answered,
"Learn the secret of the sea?
Only those who brave its dangers
Comprehend its mystery!"
— Longfellow, Hie Secret of the Sea
52
The rousing
sea chantey
changes the
view from the
dunes, puts
packet ships
on the
horizon, even
animates the
figureheads in
the maritime
museums.
For some 15 years I have collected the songs and poetry of the
sea (traditional and contemporary music and verse of seafaring folk
in North America, the British Isles, and other places). This endeavor
has been a special part of my teaching and learning life. I have
presented this material to a great variety of listeners in concert,
museums, school lectures, demonstration situations, and teacher
educational workshop settings.
During these years, while singing and playing throughout the
New England region and residing in a community of prominent
oceanographers and marine biologists, I have watched all manner of
"students" learn about maritime and marine subjects.
From Boston Harbor we set sail,
And the wind wuz blowin' a devil-of-a-gale!
With the ring-tail set all abaft the mizzen peak,
And the dolphin striker ploughin' up the deep.
— Boston Harbor, a traditional chantey
At one end of that student spectrum, there is the guy who's
been dragged (by well-meaning friends or relations) to a
concert or museum event, or a group of senior citizens who
pulled up at the National Seashore Visitors' Center on Cape Cod-
folks who happened on a scene, who stumbled across a story being
told, but were not ready to listen. For these "learners," music can
turn the educational tide. The 19th century sailor's ballad, or the
rousing sea chantey, changes the view from the dunes, puts packet
ships and fisherfolk on the horizon, even animates the figureheads
and ships models in the maritime museum salon.
Oh, the pilot comes up and these words he does say,
"Get ready, my boys, your ship's goin' away"
We braced all her yards and we gave her the slip,
And down Boston Harbor that packet did rip!
And now we are sailin' down off of Cape Cod,
WJiere many a hard flashy packet has trod,
The wind it breezed up and the sea they did boil,
And at eight bells that night we clewed up our main royal!
— Hie Dom Pedro, a traditional fo'c'sle song
At the other end of the student spectrum is the very focused,
intense setting, such as a gathering at the Sea Education Association
(SEA) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, which involves participants in
what might be called a totally sea-related educational experience.
Its six-week curriculum ashore extends into and is uniquely ampli-
fied by another six-week period of ocean-going study aboard a large
sailing vessel (see article page 46).
It was in this setting that I was first asked to "sing a few sea
chanteys" and speak, as a contributor to the humanities component
54
of the course, about the ancient and on-going traditions of music at
sea. At the outset then, this music was part of a history syllabus, but
music, once it is being sounded, is not history: it joins us in the
moment. For me (and many SEA students) music-and-the-sea
became much more than a happy evening of sea chanteys.
In the middle ground, between the intensity of the SEA experi-
ence and the happenstance of the random visitor at the maritime
site, there are all sorts of school, institute, festival and workshop
settings — places where learner and teacher have deliberately come
together with varying degrees of interest and involvement.
The teaching function of the maritime museum, the museum of
natural history, and the modern aquarium has vastly ex-
panded in recent years. It is in places like museums that many
people are first exposed to the disciplines of marine science and
maritime history.
Museums are great places to watch (and maybe help) people
learn about the sea. On any given day, visitation to a place such as
the Kendall Whaling Museum of Sharon, Massachusetts, Mystic
Seaport of Mystic, Connecticut, or the Peabody Museum of Salem,
Massachusetts, can bring a broad spectrum of interest (or disinter-
est) through the door. The artifacts are astounding and the informa-
tion and insight offered through careful curatorial and interpretive
efforts are truly remarkable. However, old stuff from the past lying
silently in glass cases can possess a certain morbidity. Need these
accomplishments of men be mute in their afterlife? Cannot these
reflections of ambition and endeavor be preserved along with
echoes of their times? Of course they can. In any room full of
artifacts, there most likely exists retrievable melodies and verses to
fill that room with musical sound and sentiment.
In any
museum room
of artifacts,
there exist
retrievable
melodies and
verses to fill
that room.
55
When white
sailors came
into contact
with black
seamen, a new
chemistry
resulted and
vigorous
worksongs
developed
known as
chanteys.
As with the historical objects themselves, careful collection,
preparation, and presentation is crucial. The maritime institutions
mentioned previously, and others (the USS Constitution Museum at
the Charlestown Navy Yard in Massachusetts, the maritime wing of
the Smithsonian's Museum of American History in Washington)
have musical and other aural elements in their programs that not
only breathe life into their collections, but into their clientele as well!
The music I use in these situations begins with sailors' songs of the
last century — chanteys, ballads, and ditties of the age of sail — but by
no means ends there.
The chantey, in and of itself, is an interesting musical and
historical occurrence. In purely historical terms, the chantey,
the blood-and-bone work-song, a specialty of the Yankee and
British seafarer, is rich and wonderful. As Dr. Stuart M. Frank,
Director of the Kendall Whaling Museum, has written:
In the Age of Cotton, early in the 19th century, when that great
Southern cash crop was a mainstay of the young republic, Yankee and
British ships carried raw cotton from Southern ports to the factory
towns of the North and to England and beyond. Most of the laborers
who loaded the bales were black, many of them slaves hired out by
their masters for this arduous work of sleeving or screwing cotton. Like
their ancestors in West Africa and their kinfolk harvesting cotton on
plantations in the American South, these stevedores tended to sing at
their work: solo-and-response songs with a lead singer, and the crew
joining in on the choruses. The style is familiar in so-called Negro
spirituals and chain-gang work-songs.
Sailors had been long accustomed to singing on shipboard, and
Navy crews commonly worked to the rhythms of fiddles, fifes, and
drums. But when the white sailors came into contact with these Afro-
American longshoremen — and, eventually, when some of the black
dockworkers went to sea as sailors — a new chemistry resulted, and a
vigorous, hybrid repertoire of shipboard work-songs developed that
came to be known as chanteys (pronounced, and sometimes spelled,
shanties)."
Wlien I was a young man and in my prime, Wai/ down in Florida!
I chased them yaller gals two at a time! An' we'll roll the
woodpile down!
Rollin'! rollin'! rollin' the whole worl' round,
That brown gal o mine's down the Georgia Line,
An' we'll roll the woodpile down!
— Roll the Woodpile Down, a traditional chantey
But work songs were certainly not the only songs of the watery
world of Sailor Jack. In many ways, shipboard life was a society
unto itself, and the musical entertainment of that society came from
within. Dr. Frank continues:
56
Like people everywhere, sailors wanted to fill their precious leisure
hours with music. Songs of any kind might do, and sailors are known
to have sung whatever was popular ashore, as well as old ballads, "sea
songs" on nautical themes and sundry ditties of sailor manufacture.
Like many chanteys (work songs), many of these fo'c'sle songs (so
called after the forecastle, where typically the crew lived aboard ship
and passed much of their off-hours time) gave voice to the triumphs
and deprivations of sailor life, in yarns about events at sea, women
ashore and the hapless plight of Jack Tar. . . . And while chanteys were
the exclusive province of the common seamen (who sang them at their
work), after-hours music was everyone's domain.
Officers and shipmasters — as well as captains' wives and families
on so called "hen ships" — were as likely as anyone to enjoy music and
to participate in occasional musical entertainments held on many
vessels for the pleasure of all. Richard Henry Dana, and many seafar-
ing men and women in their letters and diaries, have remarked that a
"musical ship" was likely to be happier than any other.
Dr. Frank himself fitted-out a "musical ship" as the founder of
the sea chantey program at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic,
Connecticut. At Mystic Seaport the music of coastal and deep-water
sailors, along with a great variety of nautical skills, is being
revived, practiced, and experienced by museum personnel and
visitors; offered in something very close to an authentic
setting.
Similar things happen at the Maine Maritime
Museum in Bath, where curator Robert L.
Webb, another nautical music expert,
reminds us that sailors of old began to
sing just as soon as they joined a
ship's company. Surrounded by
strangers, taking directions from new
bosses, learning new tasks, they actually joined a new
society. The chantey paced the work and helped make
the boat go, but a good song, a hearty chorus raised
by all hands, helped give heart to the social
order of the fo'c'sle, relieved tensions, and
helped define the rules of shipboard life
perhaps unwritten or even unspoken.
The Ebenezer was so old, sir,
She knew Columbus as a boy, sir,
Pump her, bullies, night and day,
To help us get to Liverpool Bay.
Wet hash it was our only grub, sir,
For breakfast, dinner and for
supper,
The bread was as hard as any
brass
Going to sea
can be one of
the few
situations
where people
must provide
music for
themselves.
And the meat was as salt as Lot's wife's ass!
— TJie Ebenezer — a traditional chantey
When, in our day and age, students of the sea go to sea, there
are occasions when these same, apparently timeless, things happen.
Here are the comments of Captain Carl Chase, an expert in two
fields: he holds a degree in music from Harvard University and
certification as a ship's master. For many years, he was one of the
teaching captains for SEA aboard the SSV Westward:
In reflecting on what I have observed of music-making at sea, I
realize that in these days "going to sea" can be one of the few situations
where people are thrown back on their own resources to provide
themselves with music. Of course this need not be so — you can bring
along a Walkman and tape collection — but, in the SEA program and
other circumstances under which I have spent most of my time at sea,
this was not permitted! At SEA, Walkmans were banned to discourage
people from withdrawing from the group and "zoning out" under
headphones. Furthermore, on my trips anyway, I rarely if ever
allowed the playing of recorded or radio music on the ship. My stated
reason for this was consideration for each other in a crowded setting.
My unstated reason was to create a musical void, which I knew people
would soon fill by making their own music — which would then
become a meaningful part of the fabric of shipboard life and daily
routine.
Being captain, I was in a position to aid and abet this process, but it
would have and did happen on other trips as well, where the leaders
were not "musical types."
What actually happened was no different from what has gone on
since the beginning. People would eventually overcome initial shyness
and begin to sing and /or play instruments. They would sing to pass
the time (at the wheel, on lookout duty), they would sing to make the
work go easier (in the galley, scrubbing the ship), they would sing to
vent feelings, and they would sing and play to entertain each other.
At first the material would be familiar: current songs from what
they knew and liked ashore. These would be the songs that everybody
knew. Singing them served — as ever — to bring the group closer
together. Eventually, often surprisingly quickly, one or more of these
would emerge as group favorites and begin to be personalized — words
added or changed, whole verses made up, or a special arrangement
worked out with particular instrumentation or interpretation. Now it
became their song.
On many occasions, the ultimate (in my opinion) happened and
someone — or a collaboration — would present an entirely original song.
Nine times out of ten this would be a true shanty or calypso in that it
would hide some more or less serious social commentary under the
facade and guise of innocent music and lyrics. Thus, in the 1980s, just
as for centuries past, we had crew members roasting their superiors,
58
lamenting the lack of sex and alcohol, and expressing deep sadness at
the prospect of leaving good friends — potentially heavy emotional
issues harmlessly vented through music!
Well, I really can't complain, this cruise sure has
been swell;
I've learned to do without the things I love so well.
Still when we hit port, I don't know which I'll do
first, I guess it all depends on which thirst is worse
For beer, sex, beer, sex, beer, sex, beer, sex, beer
Chorus: Take your pick!
—The Westward Blues, by David O. Brown, W-72
The need for music must be basic to the species. Nowadays we are
usually oversaturated, but it doesn't take long for the need to
reassert itself when we are confronted with an environment which
hasn't any. . .
— excerpt: Sail on the Westivard
It's obvious Captain Chase values, as did other master mariners
before him, the presence of music on board. Not simply because
it makes for a jolly ship, but because it can help open the mind
in a way that instructions may not, in a way that (dare I say it?)
instructors might not. The point is, that SSV Westward is a teaching
environment: Carl Chase knows that the reception of information,
of concepts, of what the learning situation has to offer is facilitated,
energized, and enhanced by the attendance of the Muses!
We set sail on the blue-green ocean
'Til the land was out of sight,
'We watched dolphins as they gaily
romped
And splashed in the morning light.
We felt the salty sea spray
As we travelled from day to day,
Beneath the stars we quietly sailed
On the path of the Milky Way.
Chorus.
We've had many things to laugh about
We've had times both high and low,
We started out as strangers here
Now together we all will go.
WJjen I'm down and out, when I'm weary,
And I'm tired at the end of the day,
I'll think of those starry evenings
On the path of the Milky Way.
Chorus.
— Sail on the Westward, by Chrissy King, W-57
Crew
members
roasted their
superiors,
lamented the
lack of sex
and alcohol,
and expressed
deep sadness
at the
prospect of
leaving good
friends.
59
Marine
studies and
maritime
history
programs use
music to
"sweeten" the
curricular
content,
especially for
the beginning
student.
What can be seen in these various settings where people, by
conscious act or otherwise, present themselves as learners about the
sea, is a dynamic sorely affected by the element of artful sound and
language. It's curious to me that the predisposition of the student is
often somehow unrelated to this effect. Both the individual who
happens to stumble into the maritime exhibit and the serious
student, who may have traveled hundreds of miles and spent
thousands of dollars for his or her oceanic edification, are equally
surprised, somewhat changed by the addition of a carefully pre-
pared aural component. Care and preparation are as crucial here as
in any educational formula, for we are talking about much more
than/'i/sf a sound track in the aforementioned cases.
On the other hand, there are situations where music can serve,
and honorably so, as just a sound track. I'm speaking of the marine
studies and maritime history programs that admittedly use music to
"sweeten" the curricular content, especially for the beginning
student. Although this technique is ubiquitous in our TV-Age
educational environment, and at times thoroughly repugnant in its
excess, there are several fine examples of "background" music
serving as more than an ornament.
Floating in the childhood memories of many of us are the
soundtracks of Disney nature films and Cousteau television
specials. Unforgettable for many (especially those of us
growing up in a post-World War II, Cold War America) is Richard
Rodgers' dynamic score for the television series Victory at Sea—
human drama and musical power blended into the ultimate naval
history lecture.
Presently, on a smaller scale, but with hopefully far-reaching
effects, we see the educational series The Voyage of the Mimi, a Bank
Street College project in marine science and mathematics, and the
satellite-network teaching efforts of Dr. Robert D. Ballard and the
Jason Project (see Oceanus Vol. 33, No. 1) as examples of music being
turned to account.
When it comes to video-packaged sea education, music is part
of the rigging. If it is not there, or poorly done, the educational
voyage might end well short of landfall.
Oh, the times was hard and the wages low,
Leave her, Johnny, leave her!
But now once more ashore we'll go,
And it's time for us to leave her!
Leave her, Johnny, leave her,
Oh, leave her, JoJinny, leave her!
For the voyage is done an' the winds don't blow,
An' it's time for us to leave her!
—Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her — a traditional chantey
As it was for the ancient mariner, so it is for the casual museum
60
visitor, likewise for the serious student of marine and maritime
subjects: there are certain things that help prepare us for what
comes our way — things that open us, that intensify or temper our
conscious reception, our ability to relate and to process. Learning
and teaching is forever a fluid procedure of opening (to see), of
closing (to focus), of expanding the receptive spirit, of sharpening
and intensifying the interest, of conjuring or discovering things
unbeknownst. For all who lead others to the window of a particular
discipline, a certain body of knowledge and experience — for teach-
ers— those things that help make the learner truly ready to receive are
all-important. Music is one of those things — and a good one.
Tom Goux is a teacher in the Falmouth, Massachusetts, school
system. He is also a traveling troubadour of nautical music.
"Popularization"
It is usually found that only stuffy little men object to
what is called 'popularization/ by which they mean
writing with a clarity understandable to one not familiar
with the tricks and codes of the cult. We have not known
a single great scientist who could not discourse freely and
interestingly with a child. Can it be that the haters of
clarity have nothing to say, have observed nothing, have
no clear picture of even their own fields?
— John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts
in Tlie Log from the Sea of Cortez
61
The Changing
Face
'of
Maritime
Education
by Geoff Motte
laritime academies are diversifying their
teaching efforts by offering new degree
programs as a way of combatting slumping
enrollment. In general, academies such as
I Massachusetts Maritime (MM A), Maine
Maritime, and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at
Kings Point, New York, are experiencing a drop in
enrollment of about 20 percent. This drop is largely
attributed to the shrinking number of overall high school
students graduating across the nation.
The drop in enrollment comes at a time of significant
demand for maritime academy graduates. In general,
all academy cadets can expect to have two or three jobs
to pick from when they graduate with starting salaries in
excess of $30,000 a year.
The Massachusetts Maritime Academy plans to offer
degrees in facilities and plant engineering as well as
marine environmental protection. The Maine Maritime
Academy will be offering degrees in boat building and
marina operations. The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy
62
at Kings Point does not plan to
diversify at this time because the
drop in enrollment actually helps
their federal budget position.
A good ocean-going mariner
must be provided with a sound
base of relevant technical educa-
tion for optimum blend with
seagoing experience. It is appro-
priate that topics such as weather
forecasting and practical seaman-
ship be taught in concert with
techniques for the safe operation
of today's huge ULCCs (Ultra
Large Crude Carriers), LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) carriers, and
container ships.
Computer applications and knowledge of complex electronic
shipboard systems are as important to efficient ship opera-
tions as are an understanding of the vagaries of the ocean
environment and just plain good old-fashioned seamanship.
For a seagoing engineer, improvisational skills imparted via the
machine shop go hand in glove with obtaining the highest possible
operating efficiency from the 20,000-60,000 shaft horsepower (shp)
slow-speed diesel or steam turbine propulsion plant that drives
today's modern merchant ship.
To provide a responsive educational experience for future
mariners, the faculty at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy is
establishing a good foundation of general education in the freshman
and sophomore years, gradually introducing the technical subjects
as knowledge of mathematics, physical sciences, computers and
ability to analyze and report increases. Extensive use of specialized
engineering and navigation labs and training simulators follows in
the junior and senior years.
To complement this approach to general and technical educa-
tion, each cadet sails for at least three, two-month cruises
onboard the Academy's primary laboratory — its training ship
Patriot State. Highly experienced instructors, typically master
mariners or chief engineers, are responsible for technical compo-
nents of both the shoreside and seagoing training. Thus, a strong
educational interaction is secured between classroom education and
seagoing training. This feature is at the very heart of a successful
preparatory education for seagoing officers.
Contrary to popular belief, there are tremendous job opportuni-
ties for well-trained mariners. Although the deep-sea fleet is greatly
reduced from the Vietnam support days, many of its officers are
close to retirement age. The Academy's Placement Office recently
reported 80 job interviews in a single day. In the Spring, the Mili-
tary Sealift Command's personnel hiring team was on campus for
Maritime cadets
(above) in seamanship
lab are taught
techniques of block
and tackle.
63
The facilities
and plant
engineering
field is a
profession
that is rapidly
expanding.
what the Placement Director refers to as a "million dollar day."
MSC was interviewing for 20 seagoing positions having a total first
year salary potential of about $1 million.
The paramilitary nature of a cadet's daily life develops leader-
ship and management skills valued by a wide range of employers.
Engineering graduates confidently assume operational responsibili-
ties for large seagoing engineering power plants and associated
auxiliaries and systems. Deck graduates develop additional team
management skills and an appreciation for the legal and environ-
mental concerns of ship operation. Such skills are in demand ashore
as well as at sea; and the Academy, through its Board of Trustees, is
in the process of providing additional prospects for its graduates by
broadening the curriculum.
The Academy, after carefully considering 10 new majors
ranging from ocean engineering to applied oceanography and
from maritime management to environmental engineering,
has settled on two new majors. A Bachelor of Science program in
facilities and plant engineering will be introduced this fall, to be
followed hopefully by a similar program in marine environmental
protection to commence in the fall of 1991.
The facilities and plant engineering program, which closely
parallels an existing marine engineering major, emphasizes the
operation and maintenance requirements of shoreside rather than
seagoing power plants and associated systems. Approximately half
the curriculum is devoted to fundamental courses in basic sciences,
social science, mathematics, and the humanities.
The remaining courses are a combination of theoretical and
applied engineering with special emphasis on "hands-on" engineer-
ing laboratory experience. The curriculum also includes four six-
week cooperative sessions with industry to provide valuable on-the-
job experience that may also lead to employment opportunities.
In lieu of these cooperative sessions, a student can choose to
cruise on the Patriot State to gain direct operating experience
with an 18,000-shp steam plant. A student in this major can
commute from an off-campus residence or live in a campus dormi-
tory as part of the corps of cadets. Almost a hundred graduates,
mainly former seagoing engineers, are employed as operating
engineers and managers of large engineering facilities and power
plants within the region. This new program provides direct educa-
tional access to a profession that is rapidly expanding.
The proposed program in marine environmental protection,
with courses in Law of the Sea and tanker operation and pollution
control, more closely parallels the existing marine transportation
major. This new major is presently in the planning stages and it is
hoped that a cooperative approach will result between faculty and
staff at MMA and those at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institu-
tion (WHOI). We expect to deliver a unique and useful program
answering some of the personnel needs in the field of environmen-
64
tal protection of the ocean and
the coastal zone.
There is a growing need for
knowledgeable individuals in
the area of environmental law
in order to provide for intelli-
gent enforcement of legislation.
The primary purpose of the
proposed program is to pro-
vide the academic and techni-
cal exposure necessary to
prepare professionals in this
field.
In developing the curricu-
lum, five principal areas of
program structure have been
considered:
1
2
3
4
5
m
Pollution Prevention
Fisheries and Species Protection
Waste Disposal
Coastal Wetlands
Ports and Harbors
The total program will combine a strong foundation of general
education with a series of scientific and legal courses covering the
field of environmental regulations. The program will be coordi-
nated, for MMA, by Dr. Malcolm MacGregor and, for WHOI, by Dr.
John Farrington (see introduction).
The face of maritime education is certainly changing. We
anticipate considerable benefit to the future graduates of the Massa-
chusetts Maritime Academy and hopefully to all concerned mem-
bers of the ocean community.
A maritime cadet
(above) in a machine
shop learns to produce
engine parts on a lathe.
An instructor (below)
sJiows maritime cadets
how to operate a
computer system
similar to those used to
run diesel engines.
Captain Geoff Motte is Vice
President of Academic Affairs
and Maritime Training at the
Massachusetts Maritime
Academy, Buzzards Bay.
Scientific
Illiteracy
ARM
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BODY DISK ,
We
Enemy and /,. '•; .•: ; ;vf
f' ''.'• ••'^''•.'v- ^
STARFISH
by Joseph Levine
I or the first several years of life, young chil-
dren are endlessly fascinated with the world
around them. Just try to stop kids from
asking the questions scientists want to an-
(swer! Why do birds sing? Where does the
tide go? What makes waves? Why can't we swim here
anymore? Where do babies come from? Why did
grandpa die?
How is it, then, that most people leave science classes
either bored stiff or downright disgusted, many with a
vow never to touch the stuff again?
It's because all the life in the "life sciences" — the
66
excitement, the feeling of discovery, the challenge, the drama, the
relevance to daily life — are ruthlessly squeezed out by our educa-
tional process. Look over high school and college biology curricula,
and you'll find precious few of the fascinating stories of "how we
know what we know." Very little (if any) time is spent on the
process of science, and only a minimal effort is invested in relating
concepts to students' daily lives. There is no time left at all to
explain "why we do not know what we do not know," or to discuss
such related matters as the uses and limitations of data, uncertainty,
and risk assessment. Instead, these courses concentrate on lists of
Greek and Latin terms. The result? Courses that reward students'
ability to memorize and deaden any real interest they might once
have had.
According to polls conducted by organizations ranging from
Gallup to the National Geographic Society, an astonishing
27 percent of Americans believe that the sun revolves
around the earth, 40 percent cannot locate the Pacific Ocean on a
map, and 47 percent do not believe in evolution.
Incidentally, lest we allow ourselves to be more complacent
than we should be, note that half of those who did know that the
earth revolves around the sun did not know how long it takes; more
than 20 percent guessed 24 hours instead of 365.2 days.
Given this level of scientific illiteracy, is it any wonder that the
public has no rational basis for evaluating complex issues, such as
ocean dumping, coastal zone management, offshore drilling, loss of
global biodiversity, acid rain, and ozone depletion?
How has this happened? Or — to phrase the question in a way
that can prod us to action — what role has the academic community
played in allowing this to happen?
No scientist or educator denies that the situation is serious. Yet
thus far most academics refuse to make changes in either individual
teaching style or institutional structure to address the problem.
It is easy for us to dig in our heels and insist that our educational
methods should work today as they worked in the past. We can
maintain that the techniques used to teach science majors should
work for non-majors taking courses in elementary schools, high
schools, and universities. We can insist that there is no reason why
an intelligent, motivated student should not learn biology as we
learned it.
It also is easy to implicate other factors and ignore our own role
in making a bad situation worse. We can point our fingers at a host
of problems that "explain" why a system that should be working is
not. All these problems do, in fact, stand in the way of quality
education, and the attitudes that perpetuate them must be changed.
But the multidimensional nature of the problem does not exonerate
us from accountability for our active roles in the tragedy.
I say this because after spending several years writing textbooks
and working with public television and radio, I have come to a
Most
academicians
refuse to make
changes in
either
individual
teaching
style or
institutional
structure to
address the
problem of
scientific
illiteracy.
67
Scientists are
addicted to
specialized
terminology
and technical
minutiae,
essential to
them, but
irrelevant to
the public at
large.
difficult conclusion: despite the fact that some of the best ideas for
improving education come from academic minds, by far the greatest
resistance to innovation in teaching — both in the classroom and in
society at large — comes from the same place.
Covering the entire relationship between the academic
community and science education would take an entire
book; John Burnham has done an excellent job in his jer-
emiad How Superstition Won and Science Lost. Here I'll be content if I
can present a few of the pressing problems concerning high school
and college textbooks, curricula, and teaching that stem directly
from attitudes and practices within the academic community.
"That which we call a rose," quoth Juliet, "By any other name
would smell as sweet." Ah, but if scientists could only feel the same
way about their subject matter! To far too many academics, unless
boldfaced scientific terms pepper most paragraphs, the subject has
not been covered adequately. We are addicted to specialized
terminology and technical minutiae, essential to us as professional
scientists, but irrelevant to the public at large.
Here's a specific example of how this attitude affects a non-
major's college text. My co-author and I were told by our editors
that we had to double our coverage of plant structure and function
to satisfy reviewers' comments. This "expanded coverage" con-
sisted mainly of terms that neither my co-author — who studies the
ultrastructure of photosynthetic membranes — nor I — an avocational
botanist since high school — had used before writing the book. If we
as professionals had never encountered these terms, why should
non-scientists be forced to swallow them?
But lest I seem "zoo-partisan," animal biologists are hardly
immune from criticism. Many embryologists, for example, seem
unable to conceive of their subject matter divorced from its labyrin-
thine terminology. If all these terms were as important as "fertiliza-
tion," "zygote," "placenta," or even "gastrulation," it would be one
thing. But too many— -"blastodisc" "blastomere" and "blastocoel"
to mention just a few of the "B words" — are hardly of transcenden-
tal significance to the average citizen.
To check a hunch about how important such terms are in the
context of an introductory course, I used my word processor
to check unfamiliar words in a few chapters before and after
we responded to reviewers' comments. Before revision roughly 75
percent of the terms we introduced were used more than once in a
chapter, and 20 percent of them were used elsewhere in the text.
Those terms were used repeatedly because they represented pro-
cesses or structures that are integral to the way we look at the living
world. But after revising those chapters — a process that sometimes
doubled the number of terms — less than 40 percent were used more
than once. Most were defined, used in a sentence once, and never
touched again.
This is a widespread and serious problem. Theodore Sizer,
68
ABORAL SURFACE
BODY D;SK
chair of the Education Department at Brown University, has esti-
mated that the number of new words taught in high school biology
courses exceeds the number taught in first-year French! Another
educator estimated that students are expected to swallow between
2,400 and 3,000 new terms and symbols per science course. Given
class periods of 55 minutes each, that translates into a new term
roughly every two minutes. Small wonder that kids leave class
viewing science as a foreign language, rather than a rational system
of thought.
The problem is exacerbated by a cadre of teachers and profes-
sors— spread out over respected private and state high
schools, universities, community and
teachers' colleges — who feel that terminol-
ogy is, in fact, the way to teach science.
Based on our publisher's marketing
studies, a distressingly large number are
not prepared to teach courses based on
concepts rather than definitions. At
least three editors — all of whom
have been biology teachers at some
point themselves — assured me
that "Most teachers do not want
to teach concepts. That's not
only difficult, but tough to test in
multiple choice format."
This counterproductive
educational approach among
teachers and professors has
serious negative effects on the
textbook business, where we find a
real catch-22 situation.
Even idealistic textbook
adopters want full-color,
glossy, handsomely-produced
books with a dozen ancillaries
(teacher and student guides, slide sets,
test banks, and so on); the former because
the showy format appeals to students and the latter because
ancillaries make teachers' jobs easier. Fine. But such books cost
more than $1.5 million to develop and launch, and publishers are
not in business for pleasure. The size of that bottom line means that
publishers must sell lots of books to recoup their outlay.
So, publishers send their manuscripts out for review to potential
adopters. What comes back? Some very good reviews that point
out errors, discuss outlook and content, propose treatment of
important concepts that have been missed, and suggest better
illustrations and examples. But there are a distressingly large
number of narrow-minded, self-serving diatribes railing "I would
ARM
SPINE (PAXILLAEI
STAREISH
KINGDOM ANIMALIA
PHYLUM ECHINODERMATA
CLASS STELLEROIDEA
69
Textbooks,
crammed with
more and
more facts
and fewer
concepts, are
getting so
large that
students will
soon need
forklifts to
carry them to
class.
never buy this book unless you cover. . .(insert reviewer's favorite
topic) and include the following terms. . ." Rarely do such people
want books to address such questions as "How did Watson and
Crick deduce DNA's structure?" or "What led Darwin to his theo-
ries on evolutionary change?"
Combine publishers' financial agendas with this input from
the marketplace and you get the driving force for the
evolution of textbooks; more facts, fewer pages spent
developing concepts, and less storytelling throughout. Textbooks
get so large that students will soon need fork lifts to carry them to
class, but at the same time become less and less effective as real
teaching tools.
Many blame publishers for this situation. "They should just put
out a radically different book!" our colleagues cry. But although
most editors I know want to do good work, the corporate hierarchy
is in business to sell books, rather than to redefine educational
priorities. "We can't afford to set trends," one editor told me
recently. "We can only follow them. That's why most high school
texts are roughly 10 years out of date." Welcome to the philosophy
that has allowed Hondas to become America's most popular car,
|i
and encourages Hollywood to churn out "Friday the 13tn Part 12"
and "Rambo 6."
Given the problems within the academic community, it is not
surprising that mass media are not doing the best job of educating
or informing the public. There are a number of good science
writers, primarily in print, but a few in broadcast media as well.
Even the bright lights in the crowd, however, still have to deal with
less enlightened gatekeepers. Face most of these with matters
complex and conceptual in nature, and they react with handwaving.
"Our (paper/magazine/news program) isn't the place for that,"
they cry. "We need straightforward news stories." In other words,
3. Which
fnor& attention
4. Which gets
more
a. a new
)a new car
70
WKy do vjou think
an education proble/n in
this country?
THINK
ABORAL SURF ACE,
FLAGELLUM
BODY DISK
PAPULAE
"Just the facts, ma'am." Forty years ago, an editor at The New
York Times, after killing a story on cosmic rays, explained his action
by telling the reporter "The publisher doesn't like cosmic rays, and
neither do I. Furthermore, let me tell you, I do not believe in atoms
and have but slight faith in molecules."
You wouldn't want to know how many similar — if slightly
updated — pronouncements I've heard from well-placed magazine
editors and producers of science television programs. Many of
these people have a real love/ hate
relationship, not only with science,
but with scientists as well. (That
relationship stems, in no small
part, from the sort of science
education they received at our
hands.) Reacting as journal-
ists, the majority of them
see scientific debates —
which we view as the
heart and soul of our
disciplines — as either
egotistical gamesman-
ship or spineless equivo-
cation.
The result of this
jaundiced view of scientific
discourse is the endless
flood of "tidbit" or "gee
whiz" science news that
overwhelms serious, educa-
tional science journalism.
There are exceptions, of
course, especially among the
best newspapers, on National
Public Radio, and at certain
public television stations. But
when looking at mass media in the
aggregate, these exceptions are rare.
In summary, biology education has
been slipping away from the teaching of
science toward the recitation of "facts," a
trend that has serious repercussions. For when we teach isolated
facts freed from the process that produces them, we abandon
science as "A way of knowing," as a series of rational techniques for
observing and understanding the world around us. We may tell our
students that science is a process. We may tell them that science is
vital in the modern world. But we should understand why they do
not get that message if we bombard them with lists of organisms,
trophic levels, chemical cycles, and metabolic pathways.
ARM
TUBEFEET
PED1CELLAR1AE
MADREPORITE
CILIATED
COLUMNAR
EPITHELIUM
SPINE (PAXILLAE)
STARFISH
KINGDOM ANIMALIA
SUBKINGDOM METAZOA
SECTION DEUTEROSTOMIA
PHYLUM ECHINODERMATA
SUBPHYLUM ASTEROZOA
CLASS STELLEROIDEA
SUBCLASS ASTEROIDEA
ORDER FORCIPULATIDA
FAMILY ASTERIIDAE
GENUS ASTERIAS
SPECIES A. FORBESI
71
The resulting public reaction to issues concerning science is
predictable. "When men cannot observe," noted author Naipaul,
"they do not have ideas, they have obsessions." As chillingly
documented by Burnham and verified by recent polls, a growing
number of people in this country have no understanding of science
whatsoever; they either believe in science or they do not believe in
science, just as they either believe in ghosts or do not believe in
ghosts. What our approach to science education does, therefore, is
to set our public up to treat science as a belief system — not unlike
either religion or superstition — rather than as a way of interacting
with the world in a rational manner.
This, in turn, leaves us a step away from another predicament.
If science is set up in peoples' minds as a belief system, the
door is left open for those who insist that religion (for ex-
ample, creationism) must be taught as well, because there is no
objective way to choose between two equally arbitrary systems of
belief! Unfortunately, if you compare the way biology is usually
taught to non-majors with a typical catechism class, you will find
more similarities than differences in teaching methods.
What can each of us do to work our way out of this mess? First
and foremost, we must understand that non-scientists — both school
kids and adults — have a different mindset about science than
scientists do. That mindset isn't inferior to the scientific mindset in
any way, but it is different.
I would never advocate that we try to change who we are as
scientists or the way we do science. That would be both hypocritical
and self-defeating. But I do argue that in order for us to communi-
cate with the public — both in and out of the classroom — we must
"translate" information in a way that bridges the gap between our
world view and that of non-scientists. We could retreat into the
argument that an intelligent public should be able to meet us on our
own turf. Unfortunately, here and now, that strategy isn't working.
As educators we shouldn't be asking "How do we get people to do
things our way?" but "How can we change our approach to reach
more people with our message?"
Second, many more of us must make a commitment to improve
our teaching in as many ways as possible. We must improve
our ability to communicate the essence of inquiry to students
whose interest in science has not been encouraged. There are many
ways to do this, none of which require us to take courses in schools
of education. Courses in effective writing and speaking would help,
as would increased and more active interaction with members of
our community who are outstanding teachers, and more construc-
tive interaction with qualified members of the media world.
On another level, we must work within and among depart-
ments to present courses that highlight the way science works and
the impact of science on individuals, on society, and on the bio-
sphere. Some of these courses must be interdisciplinary. It is
72
hard — if not impossible — to engage in a meaningful discussion of
global ecology without involving more economic and political
theory than most biologists are comfortable with. It is equally
difficult to discuss organ transplants or screening for genetic
diseases without crossing the boundary between biomedicine and
ethics. But because these are precisely the sorts of issues in which
students are most interested, we've got to call in qualified col-
leagues as guest lecturers or share the lectern with economists or
ethicists.
Finally, because accomplishing these goals will be difficult and
time-consuming, we must force so-called "institutions of
higher learning" to really place teaching on their priority list.
For as we all know, despite lip service to quality teaching, most
colleges and universities (quoting a National Science Foundation
[NSF] report) perpetuate "a value system in which research produc-
tivity and grantsmanship are viewed as of primary importance,
while teaching and advising undergraduates are viewed as second-
ary in importance and are generally unrewarded." Until these
institutions include quality teaching among criteria for tenure and
promotion, junior faculty will be unable to commit the time and
effort, senior faculty will be unwilling to do so, and graduate
students will see that refining teaching skills isn't worth the time it
takes.
There are some encouraging signs. NSF has offered new initia-
tives that include a grant program to improve introductory level
science teaching. This program, Undergraduate Curriculum and
Course Development in Engineering, Mathematics, and the Sciences:
Introductory Level, awards grants competitively in the standard
manner, includes summer salary and overhead, and encourages
multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches. This may be
the first step in placing teaching on a par with research, for it allows
faculty interested in teaching to bring money and prestige to their
institutions as their research-oriented colleagues do.
Joseph Levine is founder of Boston Science Communications, Inc.,
which produces educational films and products. Author of two
popular books, many magazine articles, and co-author of two
biology textbooks, he earned a Ph.D. at Harvard, and taught for five
years at Boston College.
In a
meaningful
discussion of
global
ecology,
biologists
must share
the lectern
with
economists
and political
scientists.
This article has been
adapted from one that
originally appeared in
the Marine Biological
Laboratory publica-
tion MBL Science,
Spring 1990.
73
LETTERS
To the Editor:
I read with great interest the article
"Changing Climate and the Pacific" (Winter
1989/90, Vol. 32, No. 4, pp. 71-73) because
the results of at least two decades of archaeo-
logical work on both Pacific Islands and
continental areas have suggested that past
dynamics of holocene geomorphological
change, subsidence, uplift and eustatic sea
level change have been substantial in
altering the landscapes that we see in the
Pacific today.
On Upolu in Western Samoa, for
instance, the earliest archaeological site yet
discovered, at Mulifanua, lies 110 m. off
shore from the present ferry berth and is
encrusted with sheet coral under 2 meters of
water. Tongan sites on the other side of the
Tonga Trench are often inland behind
former standlines that are now a consider-
able distance from the shore. At
Niuatoputapu in the Tongan Archipelago,
Pat Kirch from UC-Berkeley has shown that
land area almost doubles during 3000 years
of human settlement, while in the Hawaiian
Islands there has been considerable
progradation at Kawainui Swamp, Oahu
and on the leeward side of Molokai. On
Touhou islet on Kapingamarangi atoll
virtually the total landmass of 96,000 m3 was
culturally redeposited, suggesting to the
excavators that Touhou is an artificial islet
like some of those off the coast of Malaita in
the Solomons.
The whole suggests that there are many
factors involved in apparent sea level
changes, but shows definitively that the
history of human settlement in the form of
archaeological evidence should come into
play at some point as witnesses to these
dynamics in the past. The past offers us
lessons that we can not ignore in our
projections into the future.
Thomas J. Riley
Head
Department of Anthropology
Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
To the Editor:
Henry Stommel's "Island Fancies on
Fleets of Neutrally-Buoyant Floats" (Winter,
1989/90, Vol. 32, No. 4, pp 93-96) is a
delightful continuation of the work in this
field dating from the 1960s. In 1967, 1 was
invited to Woods Hole to work with Douglas
Webb and others on my current-following
gadget, the SWIB, or SHALLOW WATER
ISOBARIC BUOY. The SWIB moved up and
down in response to density differences.
SWIB used carbon dioxide cylinders to
change the volume of a piston thus increas-
ing or decreasing the density of the instru-
ment. This caused the device to sink or rise.
In the summer of 1966, 1 gave a talk on
SWIBS in Moscow where I discussed isobaric
buoys with Alvin Vine, John Isaacs, and
other distinguished ocean mavens. Work on
the SWIB was followed by proposals for free
floating OSCULATING BUOYS, neutrally
buoyant floats that would oscillate between
a fixed isobaric level and the surface. In the
Journal of Ocean Technology (Vol. 2 No. 1,
1967) we suggested that "A buoy could be
programmed to descend to particular
depths, take readings as it drifts with the
currents, and then rise to the surface to
transmit its data..." OSCULATING BUOYS
would, when desired, rise to kiss the surface,
hence the name.
Stommel seems to be proposing
OSCULATING BUOYS with a self-powered
directional capability. Though how his
gadgets could draw their power from the
"stratification of the ocean" is unclear to me.
Well why not?
The SWIB and OSCULATING BUOY
concepts were in advance of 1960s thinking.
I am pleased to see Stommel's floating buoy
dreams in print. If mankind does not blow
itself up someday they will be realized.
Cy A. Adler
New York, NY
(Editor's Note: Adler is author of Ecological
Fantasies-Death From Falling Watermelons.)
74
BOOK REVIEWS
3 Ballard Books Due to be Published
Determined to leave no adventure
unturned, Dr. Robert D. Ballard,
senior scientist and head of the
Deep Submergence Laboratory at the Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution, and
likewise a writer, private entrepreneur,
television documentary host, and spokes-
man for creative science education, is testing
the waters of thriller fiction writing.
Ballard is best known for his ocean
frontier explorations through such efforts as
the Jason Project (see Oceanus, Vol. 33, No.
1). He and his oceanographic team have
taken television and telepresence viewers on
journeys to subsea mountain ranges and
bottomlands at a depth of 16,000 feet via
underwater manned and unmanned vehicles
named Alvin, Argo, Jason and Medea in
search of historical sunken ships — The
Titanic, Bismarck, his, Hamilton, and
Scourge — in the waters of the Atlantic,
Mediterranean, and Lake Ontario.
Now Ballard is exploring the depths
of his own imagination, culling his
journals, and ships' logs to create
with New York writer, Tony Chiu, his first
spy thriller for publication in the summer of
1991.
"The challenge to me," said Ballard,
"was could I write an exciting fictional novel
that was technically accurate and without
sex and violence."
Described by Ballard as "unique in that
it is technically impeccable," the novel's
story is built around the actual loss in the
late 1960s of an Israeli submarine called
Dakar, which is Hebrew for shark. Pur-
chased from England and lost on its maiden
voyage somewhere in the Mediterranean,
the sub's mission has always been a mystery.
Set in a 1987 to 1989 time frame,
interwoven with actual world events then,
the saga entails three central characters; a
woman Navy lieutenant, a male oceanogra-
pher, and a retired submarine officer. The
tale hinges on America's concern about
nuclear proliferation.
In addition, coming out October, 1990,
are two books recently completed by Ballard
and a writing team at Madison Press of
Toronto, Canada, publishers of the books.
One is a children's book entitled The Wreck of
the Isis, and the second, which is geared
toward an adult audience, is The Bismarck.
Based on 1989's Jason Project in the
Mediterranean, The Wreck of the Isis consists
of two stories told in tandem. One story is a
fictionalized version of the ship's journey
from the time it set sail from Carthage in 355
A.D. to the moment of its sinking in stormy
Mediterranean seas. It is a tale told through
the eyes of a young boy named Antonius,
whose father owned Isis, and it leads to the
ship's sinking, with Antonius being rescued.
Alternating chapters relate the Jason
Project's discovery of Isis 1,545 years later.
Colorful and artistic throughout, the book
features photographs and original artwork.
Tracers in the Ocean
Edited by H. Charnock, J. E. Lovelock,
P. S. Liss, and M. Whitfield
Trace elements have been used to improve
understanding of ocean currents and the mixing
of the oceans; the behavior of trace elements in
biological and inorganic systems and processes;
and the carbon cycle, climate change, and the
greenhouse effect. These papers present these
techniques and results for researchers in ocean-
ography and related fields.
Paper $19.95 ISBN 0-691-02443-X
Cloth: $50.00 ISBN 0-691-08571^
AT YOUR BOOKSTORE OR
Princeton University Press
41 W1UJAM ST. • PRINCETON, NJ 08540 • (609) 25W900
ORDERS 800-PRS-ISBN (777-4726)
75
In its epilogue, Ballard and his team of
explorers explain what they learned from
their studies then, and what the Jason Project
continues to achieve educationally with
thousands of students.
The Bismarck book is designed with a
format similar to Ballard's past books,
an encompassing epic tale of history,
tragedy, and rediscovery ( see Oceanus, Vol.
32, No. 3). Highlights include extensive
original artwork commissioned from artists
in the United States, England, Canada, and
West Germany.
Featured are captivating paintings by
Los Angeles artist Ken Marschall, who
brought Ballard's book, The Titanic, vividly
to life, and historic World War II photos
researched from European naval archives.
The book's text was likewise a team effort
among researchers, historical experts,
writers and editors working with Ballard.
Both books are significant to Ballard not
only because they comprise all that he has
learned about their subjects, but because
they are dedicated to his first son, Todd Alan
Ballard, who shared the experiences with
him, and who one month after their comple-
tion died in a car accident.
When asked about the increasing public
curiosity of whether Dirk Pitt, hero of Clive
Cussler's science fiction adventure novel,
Raise The Titanic, and subsequent adventure
novels, was drawn from his personality,
Ballard reeled with laughter.
"Oh, I don't know, " said Ballard. "I've
been called Carl Sagan with gills, the young
Cousteau, Indiana Jones, and now I'm being
called Dirk Pitt. But, I'm just Bob Ballard,
that's all."
Available in bookstores in October, The
Bismarck will be a hardcover publication
priced at $35.00. The Wreck of the Isis will be
available in both hard and soft cover for
$15.95 and $6.95, respectively.
— Kathy Sharp Frisbee
Editorial Assistant
Oceanus magazine
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
T1HIIE CREST
OF TIHME
WAV IE
ADVENTURES IN OCEANOGRAPHY
mint
AUTHOR OF WAVES AND BEACHES
A lifetime of science —
and adventure.
For more than 40 years, Willard
Bascom has explored the seas in
search of knowledge. He has measured
waves and probed the ocean floor,
pioneered SCUBA diving and devel-
oped underwater mining techniques,
assessed the impact of pollution and
searched for sunken treasure. And all
the wonder and excitement of his dis-
coveries are brought brilliantly to life
in this engaging autobiography.
'Gripping and beautifully written
tales of exotic high adventure."
-San Francisco Chronicle
Also available from Anchor Books:
WAVES AND BEACHES
ANCHOR BOOKS
A division of Bantam Ooubteday Dell
Publishing Group, toe.
BOOKS RECEIVED
BIOLOGY
Guide to the Marine Isopod
Crustaceans of the Caribbean, by
Brian Kensley and Marilyn Schotte;
1989; Smithsonian Institution Press,
Washington, DC; 308 pp. - $35.00.
North Atlantic Studies: Whaling
Communities, edited by Elisabeth
Vestergaard; 1990; Centre for North
Atlantic Studies, Aarhus University
Press, Denmark; 220 pp. - 240 DKK.
Orcas of the Gulf: A Natural
History, by Gerard Gormley; 1990;
Sierra Club, San Francisco, CA; 189
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MARINE PAINTINGS • PRINTS
The Pinnipeds: Seals, Sea Lions,
and Walruses, by Marianne
Riedman; 1990; University of
California Press, Berkeley, CA; 439
pp. + xxiv - $29.95.
ENVIRONMENT
1
Carbon Dioxide and Global
Change: Earth in Transition, by
Sherwood B. Idso; 1989; IBR Press,
Tempe, AZ; 292 pp. + iv. - $19.95.
Common Heritage or Common
Burden? : The United States
Position on the Development of a
Regime for Deep Sea-Bed Mining
in the Law of the Sea Convention,
by Markus G. Schmidt; 1990;
Oxford University Press, Gary,
NC; 31 7pp. + v -$72.00.
Design for a Livable Planet: How
You Can Help Clean Up the
Environment, by Jon Naar; 1990;
Harper & Row, New York, NY; 338
pp. + x - $12.95.
Fire and Ice: The Greenhouse
Effect, Ozone Depletion & Nuclear
Winter, by David E. Fisher; Harper
& Row, New York, NY; 232 pp. -
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The Next One Hundred Years:
Shaping the Fate of Our Living
Earth, by Jonathan Weiner; 1990;
Bantam Books, New York, NY; 312
pp. - $19.95.
World Resources: A Guide to the
Global Environment, Report by
The World Resources Institute;
1990; Oxford University Press, New
York, NY; 367 pp. + viii - $29.95.
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The Yosemite, photos by Galen
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FISHERIES
Hawaiian Reef Animals, Revised
Edition, by Edmund Hobson and
E.H. Chave; 1990; University of
Hawaii Press, Honolulu, HI; 137 pp.
+ xiii - $19.95.
Light and Life In The Sea, edited
by Peter J. Herring, Anthony K.
Campbell, Michael Whitfield and
Linda Maddock; 1990; Cambridge
University Press, NY; 298 pp + xxiv
-$59.60. '
Management of World Fisheries:
Implications of Extended Coastal
State Jurisdiction, edited by
Edward L. Miles; Institute for
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$15.95.
Winds of Change: Women in
Northwest Commercial Fishing, by
Charlene J. Allison, Sue-Ellen
Jacobs, and Mary A. Porter; 1990;
University of Washington Press,
Seattle, WA; 174 pp. + xviii - $25.00.
MARINE POLICY
In the Wake of the Exxon Valdez:
The Devastating Impact of the
Alaska Oil Spill, by Art Davidson;
1990; The Sierra Club, San Fran-
cisco, CA; 315 pp. + xi - $19.95.
Managing Troubled Waters: The
Role of Environmental Monitor-
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The Ocean in Human Affairs,
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Oceans of Wealth?, edited by K.R.
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OCEANOGRAPHY
Antarctic Sector of the Pacific,
edited by G.P. Glasby; 1990;
Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.,
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Developments in Hydrobiology:
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edited by P.G. Sly and B.T. Hart;
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New Explorers: Women in Antarc-
tica, by B. Land; 1981; Dodd Mead,
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Oceanography 1988/Proceedings of
the Joint Oceanographic Assem-
blies, edited by Agustin Ayala-
Castanares, Warren Wooster, and
Alejandro Yanez-Arancibia,
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de Mexico, Consejo Nacional De
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UNESCO.
Year 2000 Challenges for Marine
Science Training and Education
Worldwide, UNESCO Reports in
Marine Science; 1988; United
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France.
Women on the Ice: A History of
Women in the Far South, by E.
Chipman; 1986; Melbourne
University Press, Melbourne,
Australia; 224 pp. - $28.50.
REFERENCE
The Emperor's New Mind:
Concerning Computers, Minds,
and The Laws of Physics, by Roger
Penrose; 1989; Oxford University
Press, New York, NY; 449 pp. + v -
$24.95.
78
Attention
Students & Teachers!
Oceanus is available to you
at reduced rates! Student
subscriptions and those for
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80
MBL WHOI LIBRARY
• •••••• || I || I III l|
WH IflBb 0
OCEAN
Ocean Challenge is a new magazine
published for the Challenger Society by
Science Reviews, Ltd. publishers to the
Royal Institution of London. It has been
developed to give a wide readership access
to material currently only appearing in
specialist research publications.
Features planned for upcoming issues of the
magazine include:
Estuaries: the sensitive fringe of the ocean
by Keith Dyer
Oceanography on Stamps
by Tony Rice & Arthur Fisher
Modelling tides for the 1 988 Olympics
by Roger Proctor & Judith Wolf
What is oceanography?
by Steve Thorpe
The North Sea seal epidemic
by John Harwood
Ocean Challenge expands public awareness
of marine science and assists cross-disciplin-
ary fertilization within the science. This
magazine is for everyone involved in marine
science and its support, including students,
and appeals to all who are interested in
preserving the marine environment.
Please enter my subscription to Ocean Challenge (4
issues) . The subscription rate is £70 (UK)/$140 (US and
other) . Personal subscription rate is £30/$60 (US and
others) .
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OC :AN
Ocean Challenge contains general interest
feature articles on all aspects of oceanogra-
phy - from marine biology to mathematical
modelling, and from polar research to El
Nino. In addition the journal publishes
news of recent and forthcoming events,
reports of research programs and cruises,
commentaries, correspondence, book
reviews and guest editorials. Articles are
well illustrates and the style is easily
accessible.
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Angela Colling, Department of Earth Science, Open
University, Milton Keynes
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
John Wright, Department of Earth Sciences, Open
University, Milton Keynes
EDITORIAL BOARD
Martin Angel, 1OS Deacon Laboratory, Godalming,
Surrey
Keith Dyer, Polytechnic Southwest, Plymouth
Peter Foxton, Marlborough, Wiltshire
Tim Francis, Tim Francis Associates, Guilford,
Surrey
Edward Hill, Marine Science Laboratories, Menai
Bridge, Gwynedd
Bill Prior-Jones, Metocean Consultancy Ltd,
Haslemere, Surrey
MARINE AND
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
AND ENGINEERING
^ he Florida Institute of
Technology is located on
b Florida's Space Coast, 40 miles
south of Kennedy Space Center. F.IX
is surrounded by a unique coastal
environment. Within easy bicycling
distance students can reach the beaches
of the Atlantic Ocean, estuaries and
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lakes and artificial canals.
Students can also catch a boat bound
for the Gulf Stream at F.IX's anchorage.
F.IX supports student research.
Through faculty sponsored research,
F.IX students use state-of-the-art
technical equipment and vessels.
MAJOR PROGRAM INTERESTS:
Biological Oceanography
Corrosion and Biofoulmg
Environmental Information and Synthesis
Freshwater/Lake Chemistry
Geological and Physical Oceanography
Global Environmental Processes
Hydrodynamics and Naval Architecture
Marine and Environmental Chemistry
Marine Composite Materials
Marine Education
Marine Fisheries
Marine Waste Management
Ocean Policy and Management
Pollution Processes and Toxicology
Waste Utilization and Management
Wetlands Systems
THE DISCIPLINES:
Coastal Processes and Engineering
Coastal Zone Management
Environmental Science and Engineering
Marine Vehicles
Ocean Engineering
Ocean Systems
Oceanography
For more information about degree programs in Marine and Environmental Science and Engineering,
including financial support and tuition remission, contact:
Dr. N. Thomas Stephens, Head, Department of Oceanography and Ocean Engineering
.§ Florida Institute of Technology
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