Oceanography | December 2017
Thanks to all of the TOS members who participated in the
survey. We were truly overwhelmed by the response. If you did
not receive the survey email, or forgot to respond, we would still
like to hear from you, especially regarding Question 3. You can
email me your response at ekappel@geo-prose.com, or if you
are attending the Ocean Sciences Meeting in February, please
come by the TOS booth and share your stories about how you
use Oceanography in the classroom and also how we might make
the magazine more useful for educational purposes. For those of
you who responded to the survey online and will be attending
the Ocean Sciences Meeting, come to the TOS booth and chat
with us anyway—and also collect your extra beverage coupon.
Ellen S. Kappel, Editor
I have used graphics from Oceanography in many lec-
tures over the years. It’s one of the best sources for clear
and easy-to-understand illustrations and images of scientific
processes. Pictures of people at sea are great for showing
young people why a career in oceanography can be exciting!
I assign and discuss Oceanography articles that are relevant
to courses and lectures. The fact that the articles are by prac-
ticing scientists but (usually) written at a level that engages
undergraduates makes them useful to introduce students to
the topic and primary literature.
I use them as current review articles in classes “Biological
Oceanography” and “Anthropogenic Changes in the Ocean.”
Oceanography has very didactic graphs and concentrated,
but simple to understand texts. Maybe you could describe it
as a wide-ranging, up to date Oceanography textbook.
Many of the articles are concise summaries that are espe-
cially appropriate for lower division introductory classes.
We regularly use TOS articles for our first year graduate stu-
dents taking our topic-driven seminar class. The TOS articles
are excellent for overview material that the students must
then flesh out with additional readings from the literature
and then present meeting style presentation and then lead
follow-up discussion.
I have consistently recommended the articles to the commu-
nity college instructors in professional development activities
that I undertake.
I particularly like the “big picture” articles for classroom set-
tings. For example, there was a special issue several years
ago on larval dispersal. Much of the provided information
included basic concepts in the field that aren’t readily avail-
able in a BioOce textbook.
Special issues are great for framing an issue, especially for
instructors with high teaching loads who might not otherwise
have much time to research a topic.
Oceanography special issues are great compendiums of
articles on a single topic—bathymetry, ice-ocean exchange,
etc.—and these are really helpful for getting students up to
speed on a topic.
I find that they provide great summaries on a lot of topics for
my students as well as for myself when I prepare lectures.
The graphics are usually high quality and illustrate broader
concepts, which are great for classroom lectures.
The articles are available to all students and have become
staples in my graduate classes. I have and continue to use
too many to list here.
QUESTION 3. Tell us more about how you use Oceanography articles or special issues in the classroom or
for other educational purposes such as informing policymakers or management. Please name specific special
issues or articles that you have found most useful for classroom discussions.
TABLE 1. Selection of Responses to Question 3 from November 2017 Online Survey of TOS Members (n = 143)