TEACHING THE IMPORTANCE OF OCEAN SUSTAINABILITY USING ACTIVE LEARNING TECHNIQUES

Ocean sustainability is a key societal and environmental issue that is integral to modern climate change and increasing human population. Unfortunately, many undergraduate students don’t realize the importance of ocean health to the stability of both global climate and socioeconomic systems. Increasing student literacy of Earth is one of the primary goals of InTeGrate (Interdisciplinary Teaching about Earth for a Sustainable Future) Program. InTeGrate addresses this goal by bringing together multidisciplinary, multi-institutional teams to develop Earth Science teaching materials for undergraduate classrooms. Here we demonstrate one activity from InTeGrate’s Ocean Sustainability module (available from https://serc.carleton.edu/165003).

The Ocean Sustainability Module is comprised of six units that explore how modern climate change and increasing population impact seawater chemistry, ocean currents, marine species and ecosystems as well as some mitigation techniques. Each unit provides student-centered activities that allow students to take an active role in their learning. The activity to be presented explores the importance of establishing marine protected areas (MPAs) for improving and maintaining healthy marine ecosystems and sustainable fishing industries. In this activity, students are asked to design an MPA for a target marine species. To maximize the effectiveness of their MPA they should consider the requirements of their species at all life stages (e.g., habitat requirements, prey requirements, home ranges, spawning aggregations, nursery grounds, migration pathways). Students should also consider political and social constraints when planning their MPA (e.g., cost, proximity to recreation areas). Students are then asked to consider the viewpoints of voters and write a series of bullet points that they would use to convince their constituents of the utility of their marine protected area. They can then be asked to compare their marine protect area and bullet points with other students/groups. This type of active learning task helps engage students and allows them to take ownership of the work they do – both important aspects of effective teaching techniques.