Incorporating oceanographic data into a marine science curriculum

The Marine and Environment Sciences curriculum at the US Coast Guard Academy integrates inquiry-based activities centered around a wide variety of data acquired from different sources. Students learn through discovery, apply and broaden their knowledge gained in classroom lectures, and develop their critical thinking skills. In the sophomore and junior years, students are supplied with published data sets (typically acquired via the World Wide Web (WWW)), and analyze the data through a series of hypothesis-testing problems. Each activity is aimed at developing particular data analysis skills. The complexity and volume of the data sets increase as the students progress from sophomore-level to junior-level courses. In their senior year, students independently acquire their own data and/or analyze very large, complex and sometimes inter-related data sets.