I. General Information

1. Course Title:
Oceanography

2. Course Prefix & Number:
ESCI 1451

3. Course Credits and Contact Hours:

Credits: 3

Lecture Hours: 3

Lab Hours: 0

4. Course Description:

This course is an introduction to the science of oceanography through the interdisciplinary areas of biological, chemical, geological, and physical oceanography.  Topics include ocean floor, plate tectonics, sea water chemistry, currents, waves, tides, coasts, and marine life.  Contemporary environmental topics are also part of this course and may include marine contamination, marine noise, overfishing, alternative energy, global climate change, tsunami and storms, coastal issues, and marine resources.

5. Placement Tests Required:

Accuplacer (specify test):

Reading College Level CLC or Reading College Level

Score:

6. Prerequisite Courses:

There are no prerequisites for this course.

9. Co-requisite Courses:

There are no corequisites for this course.

II. Transfer and Articulation

1. Course Equivalency - similar course from other regional institutions:

Century College, ESCI 1060 Introduction to Oceanography, 3 credits
North Hennepin Community College, GEOL 1850 Oceanography, 3 credits

III. Course Purpose

2. MN Transfer Curriculum (General Education) Courses - This course fulfills the following goal area(s) of the MN Transfer Curriculum:

• Goal 3 – Natural Sciences
• Goal 10 – People and the Environment

IV. Learning Outcomes

1. College-Wide Outcomes

College-Wide Outcomes/Competencies	Students will be able to:
Demonstrate written communication skills	Demonstrate written communication skills on geoscience and oceanographic topics.
Demonstrate reading and listening skills	Synthesize central concepts from assigned readings of scientific literature in written assignments.
Apply abstract ideas to concrete situations	Correctly explain conditions observed in the ocean realm in the context of contemporary geoscientific and oceanographic theories.
Discuss/compare characteristics of diverse cultures and environments	Discuss/compare characteristics of diverse cultures and Environments in the context of ocean science.

2. Course Specific Outcomes - Students will be able to achieve the following measurable goals upon completion of the course:

• Demonstrate understanding of scientific theories in geological, chemical, physical, and biological oceanography.  MnTC Goal 3
• Interpret data generated by oceanographic techniques, and present written and oral summaries of their findings.  MnTC Goal 3
• Evaluate contemporary issues from the perspective of oceanography, and design and propose their own solutions to problems.  MnTC Goal 3
• Explain the basic structure and function of the ocean realm, the impact of humans on it, and the impact of the ocean realm on humans.  MnTC Goal 10
• Recognize the difference between use and abuse of the ocean resources.  MnTC Goal 10
• Propose solutions to problems in the ocean environment.  MnTC Goal 10
• Provide rationale for their solutions to environmental issues and ocean-related disaster preparedness and response.  MnTC Goal 10
• Present written and oral summaries of research findings.
• Evaluate disaster preparedness and response in coastal and marine environments.

V. Topical Outline

Listed below are major areas of content typically covered in this course.

1. Lecture Sessions

1. Course Introduction.
• Forrmation hypotheses for Earth and the Solar System.
• The hypothesis for the life’s origins.
• The fate of the Earth
• The possibility for water elsewhere in the Solar System.
2. History of Oceanography as a Science.
• The beginnings of ocean travel – the age of voyaging for trade and exploration.
• The early days of ocean science.
• Modem oceanography and modern technology.
3. Earth Structure and Plate Tectonics.
• A layered Earth interior.
• Sources of Earth’s interior heat.
• The concept of isostacy.
• Wegener’s hypothesis of continental drift.
• Evidence for divergent, convergent, and transform plate boundaries.
• The contemporary theory of plate tectonics.
• Lab-Like Experience:  Mapping tectonic plate boundaries using data maps of seismicity, paleogeography, bathymetry, volcanology, and sediment thickness.
4. Ocean Basins.
• Bathmetry – ocean floor mapping.
• Active and passive continental margins.
• Mid-ocean ridges
• Abyssal plains
• Seamounts and guyots.
• Deep ocean trenches.
• Ocean Sediments.
• Sediment classification – particle size and source.
• Neritic Sediments.
• Pelagic Sediment types.
• What can be learned by interpreting ocean sediments?
• Lab-Like Experience:  Discovering the evidence for the K-T extinction event through the analysis of marine sediment layers.
5. The Chemical and Thermal Properties of Water.
• The water molecule – structure and consequences.
• Water’s thermal characteristics – heat capacity, changes in density with temperature, freezing temperature, evaporation and thermal exchange.
• How Earth’s ocean moderate’s air temperatures.
• Water as a universal solvent
• Salinity.
• Dissolved gasses in the ocean.
• Ocean pH.
• Ocean water density stratification.
• How sunlight interacts with seawater.
• The behavior of sound in the ocean.
• Lab-Like Experience: A graphical analysis of the relationship between freezing temperature and salinity.
6. Atmospheric Circulation.
• The composition and structure of Earth’s atmosphere.
• The heating of Earth’s atmosphere by the Sun.
• Thee Coriolis effect.
• General atmospheric circulation patterns.
• Storms, including tropical and extra-tropical cyclones.
• Lab-Like Experience: Hurricane mapping case-study of recent hurricane season.
7. Ocean Circulation.
• The process of wind-driven circulation
• Ocean surface currents.
• Air-sea interactions – how surface circulation affects weather and climate.
• Vertical circulation; upwelling and downwelling.
• Air-sea oscillating systems: El Nino and La Nina (ENSO), NAO, AMO (Atlantic Multidecadal) , PDO (Pacific Decadal), etc.
• Thermohaline circulation.
• Lab-Like Experience:  The North Atlantic Oscillation and the sinking of the Titanic.
8. Waves.
• Waves as a mechanism for energy transport across the ocean.
• The physical characteristics of waves.
• How waves behave according to water depth.  The transition from deep-water wave to shallow-water wave. 
• Wind generated waves.
• Wave interference, refraction, reflection.  Rogue waves.
• Tidal waves, storm surges, seiches.
• Tsunami.
• Lab-Like Experience:  Case study of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.
9. Tides.
• How tides are generated.
• The dynamic theory of tides.
• Predicting tides.
• Tides and coasts.
• Extracting energy from tides.
10. Coasts
• How coasts are measured.  Fractal analysis.
• Erosion along coasts.
• Sediment deposition along coasts.
• The movement of sand along coasts.
• Where fresh water meets ocean: deltas and estuaries.
• Human activities along coasts.
• Lab-Like Experience:  Beach nourishment case study: determining  littoral drift along coasts by analyzing wave refraction patterns.
11. Ocean Life
• Energy exchange in living things.  Photosynthesis and chemosynthesis.
• Primary productivity, the trophic pyramid, and food webs.
• The physical and biological factors that affect marine life:  light, temperature, nutrients, salinity, dissolved gasses.
• Marine life classification according to environmental zones.
• Biological evolution.
• Marine life classification according to evolutionary heritage.
• Marine communities.
• Mass extinctions.
12. Pelagic Communities.
• Phytoplankton and zooplankton.
• Nekton – Squids and nautilids, fish, sharks, reptiles and amphibians, marine birds, marine mammals.
• Lab-Like Experience:  Mapping phytoplankton and ocean currents using ocean chlorophyll data.
13. Benthic Communities.
• The non-random distribution of benthic organisms.
• Aquatic vascular plants and seaweed.
• Salt marshes and estuaries.
• Rocky intertidal communities.
• Beach communities.
• Coral reef communities.
• Deep seafloor communities.
• Hydrothermal vent communities
• Whale-fall communities
• Lab-Like Experience:  Investigating the afterlife of whales:  whale-fall communities.
14. Ocean Environmental Issues.
• Extracting physical resources from the ocean:  Petroleum and natural gas, methane hydrates, sand and gravel, salt, desalination.
• Extracting energy from the ocean:  harnessing the energy of wind, waves, and tides.
• Extracting food from the ocean: fishing, overfishing, drift net fishing, bycatch, whaling, botanical resources, farming.
• Marine contamination: oil spills, toxic chemicals, heavy metals, eutrophication, plastics.
• Marine conservation.
• Climate change.
• Lab-Like Experience: Tracking the aftermath of the 2010 BP Gulf of Mexico ocean floor oil leak.

2. Laboratory/Studio Sessions

No lab.  Lab-like experiences are listed in the topical outline above.