This project is supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DUE-0442497 (NSF Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement - National Dissemination Program). Opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation.

Students participate in an Online Ocean Studies investigation.

At a Glance:
»The Challenge We Face
»Online Ocean Studies Course
»An Invitation to Join the Online Ocean Studies Diversity Project
»Accepting Our Invitation
»Diversity Project Goals
»Implementation Workshop
»Workshop Facilities
»Seattle Workshop Participant Support and Housing
»AMS Annual Meeting Workshop
»For More Information

The course implementation workshops will feature many guest speakers from oceanic- and atmospheric-related government agencies, including NOAA, and educational institutions, including the University of Washington.

At a Glance:
»The Challenge We Face
»Online Ocean Studies Course
»An Invitation to Join the Online Ocean Studies Diversity Project
»Accepting Our Invitation
»Diversity Project Goals
»Implementation Workshop
»Workshop Facilities
»Seattle Workshop Participant Support and Housing
»AMS Annual Meeting Workshop
»For More Information

NOAA facility in Seattle, WA

At a Glance:
»The Challenge We Face
»Online Ocean StudiesCourse
»An Invitation to Join the Online Ocean Studies Diversity Project
»Accepting Our Invitation
»Diversity Project Goals
»Implementation Workshop
»Workshop Facilities
»Seattle Workshop Participant Support and Housing
»AMS Annual Meeting Workshop
»For More Information

Phoenix Civic Plaza Convention Center - Location of 2009 AMS Annual Meeting.

At a Glance:
»The Challenge We Face
»Online Ocean Studies Course
»An Invitation to Join the Online Ocean Studies Diversity Project
»Accepting Our Invitation
»Diversity Project Goals
»Implementation Workshop
»Workshop Facilities
»Seattle Workshop Participant Support and Housing
»AMS Annual Meeting Workshop
»For More Information

Poster presentations at AMS Annual Meeting.

Including Faculty Course Implementation Workshops at the facilities of

The University of Washington School of Oceanography
and
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Seattle, Washington
15-20 June 2008

and at the

AMS Annual Meeting
Phoenix, Arizona
10-13 January 2009

* The AMS Ocean Studies Diversity Project is for eligible institutions using the complete course package.

* Click here for the AMS Ocean Studies Diversity Project License Order Form

Jump to...
*The Challenge We Face
*AMS Ocean Studies Course
*An Invitation to Join the AMS Ocean Studies Diversity Project
*Accepting Our Invitation
*Diversity Project Goals
*Implementation Workshop
*Workshop Facilities
*Seattle Workshop Participant Support and Housing
*AMS Annual Meeting Workshop
*For More Information

The Challenge We Face
Our nation faces a serious challenge in attracting young people to science and science-related careers (including teaching). This is particularly true for members of groups underrepresented in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology and is especially acute in the number of minority college students majoring in the geosciences.

A formidable obstacle in attracting students to the geosciences has been lack of access, that is, no opportunity to enroll in an introductory geoscience course simply because none is offered at their college or university. To help alleviate this problem, the American Meteorological Society (AMS) is making available an introductory oceanography course, AMS Ocean Studies, which can be added to an institution's general education offerings. This highly innovative course has been implemented at more than 90 institutions nationwide since fall 2005, including 50 minority-serving colleges and universities that joined the AMS AMS Ocean Studies Diversity Project during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 academic years. The AMS encourages course adoption by more institutions serving large numbers of minority student through support from the National Science Foundation's Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement - National Dissemination (CCLI-ND) program.

The AMS Ocean Studies Diversity Project is modeled after the highly successful NSF-funded AMS Weather Studies Geosciences Diversity/National Dissemination Project, which introduced that course to 145 minority-serving institutions.

AMS Ocean Studies course
AMS Ocean Studies has been developed by the AMS for undergraduate institutions to license and offer in local-national teaching partnerships. The course, focusing on the use of real-world ocean data and investigations, examines the world ocean with an Earth system perspective. The course is modeled after the highly successful AMS Weather Studies course, which has been licensed by over 350 colleges and universities. Details concerning the AMS Ocean Studies course are available at:

http://www.ametsoc.org/oceanstudies

An Invitation to Join the AMS Ocean Studies Diversity Project
The AMS, in cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is inviting minority-serving institutions to join the effort to provide student access to learning opportunities in the geosciences by implementing AMS Ocean Studies.

For the purposes of this AMS Diversity Project, eligible colleges and universities include those listed by the U.S. Department of Education as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and Alaska Native or Native Hawaiian (AN/NH) Serving Institutions. Also eligible are other accredited post-secondary institutions that can document a minority enrollment of at least 25% of their total student population. Minority students are defined as members of African American, Hispanic American, American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Native Pacific Islander groups.

To encourage institutional participation, the Online Ocean Studies Diversity Project offers the following:

• Attendance by course instructor at a one-week course implementation workshop in Seattle, Washington to be held June 15-20, 2008. All travel, room, board, and instructional costs are paid by the Project, and the instructor in attendance will receive a $375 stipend.
  
• Attendance by course instructor at the subsequent AMS Annual Meeting (10-13 January 2009, Phoenix, AZ). Meeting registration fee, travel, and lodging costs will be covered by the Project.
  
• Ongoing course implementation assistance by AMS program staff and experienced AMS Ocean Studies instructors who teach in similar academic environments.
  
• An academic advising/mentoring opportunity facilitated by course instructors for students who demonstrate interest and potential for further studies leading to possible careers in oceanography or related sciences, or in teaching.
  
• Reduced course licensing fees of $49 per semester or $79 per year for the first three AMS Ocean Studies licenses.

Accepting Our Invitation
Post-secondary institutions that meet the program's eligibility requirements can accept our invitation by submitting the AMS Online Ocean Studies Diversity Project License Order Form signed by an authorized institutional representative, which commits the institution to offering the course for at least one semester.

Fax or mail the License Order Form to us with the license fee or a purchase order.

Implementation Workshop participation is on a first-come, first-served basis as determined by the date-of-receipt of the License Order Form. Institutions which have participated in the AMS Weather Studies Geosciences Diversity/National Dissemination Project are eligible to apply for this program upon successful implementation of the weather course. In order to grow AMS diversity programs to their fullest extent, these institutions are encouraged to nominate a course instructor who did not attend AMS Weather Studies Diversity Project workshops. Until three months before the workshop, one-half of the Workshop positions will be reserved for institutions new to AMS diversity programs.

Individual instructors at a particular institution are eligible to participate in workshops for one AMS diversity program in a given year.

Diversity Project Goals
The Implementation Workshop is designed for faculty members who already teach oceanography and those who have little or no prior teaching experience or formal training in oceanography. The workshop will cover selected topics in oceanography, pedagogy, course implementation and management, collegial community development, and diversity issues. Each participant will be provided with all necessary course materials to teach AMS Ocean Studies and will demonstrate:

• The ability to interpret and analyze ocean data acquired through direct and remote sensing and delivered by the Internet.
  
• Approaches to the investigation of ocean processes and phenomena in an Earth system perspective.
  
• Understanding of the course delivery system and implementation strategies.
  

Subsequent to the Implementation Workshop, participants will:

• Become part of an interactive network to share best-practice ideas in science content and teaching strategies related to their offering of AMS Ocean Studies.
  
• Participate in a mentoring program that networks students with professional oceanographers and provides opportunities for internships, summer research, and career counseling.
  
• Be encouraged to present a paper or poster at the Education Symposium at the AMS Annual Meeting.

Implementation Workshop
The intensive one-week Implementation Workshop will be held in Seattle at oceanographic facilities available at the University of Washington's School of Oceanography and nearby NOAA installations. Workshop activities will include lectures, seminars, hands-on laboratory exercises, and field trips.

Formal workshop activity will begin with a Sunday evening meeting at the hotel, followed by five full days of sessions from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily, with the workshop ending on Friday afternoon. To meet the commitment of full participation, most participants should plan to depart on Saturday, June 21.

Workshop Facilities
Most workshop meetings will be held at the University of Washington and NOAA facilities. The University of Washington's School of Oceanography is a national leader in oceanographic research and education of graduate and undergraduate students, and operates two research vessels. Its faculty of 60 focuses on four areas of specialization (biological, chemical, physical, and marine geology and geophysics) and on a variety of interdisciplinary topics (climate change, extreme environments, and coastal systems).

Visits will be made to NOAA facilities including the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) and the Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC). PMEL is world-renowned for developing ocean observing systems that focus on open ocean observations in support of long-term monitoring and prediction of the ocean environment on time scales from minutes to decades. These include the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean Project (TAO), Tsunami observation and mitigation, Argo profiling floats, and the NeMO Seafloor observatory. NWFSC studies living marine resources and their habitats in the Northeast Pacific Ocean - primarily off the coasts of Washington and Oregon and in freshwater rivers and streams in the Northwest - directed towards building sustainable fisheries, recovering endangered and threatened species, and sustaining healthy coasts.

Seattle Workshop Participant Support and Housing
Seattle Workshop participants will receive:

• Stipend of $375.
• Single hotel room for 6 nights at no cost.
• Meal allowance.
• Air travel (or equivalent for land travel) for one round trip between home and Seattle, WA.
• All workshop instructional supplies.

Participants will be housed in hotel facilities as arranged by the AMS located in Seattle's University District near the University of Washington campus. The workshop is intensive and informal interaction among participants is an integral component of the program. Participants will be encouraged to attend without families if their presence is likely to detract from full participation. Also, participants are responsible for all expenses arising from the presence of accompanying persons.

AMS Annual Meeting Workshop
Participating faculty members who are successfully implementing Online Ocean Studies at their institutions will be invited to the 2009 AMS Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona to present a poster or paper describing their implementation experience, participate in a one-day workshop focusing on diversity and other issues related to the course, and attend the Meeting's extensive scientific sessions and exhibits.

Meeting registration, travel, hotel accommodations, and some meals will be provided by the AMS Ocean Studies Diversity Project.

For More Information
Please direct all communications concerning the project to:

Elizabeth Mills
AMS Ocean Studies Diversity Project
American Meteorological Society
1120 G Street, NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20005
Telephone: 800-824-0405
Fax: 800-258-1176
E-mail: onlineocean@ametsoc.org

In selecting faculty participants and otherwise administering the workshop, the American Meteorological Society will not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, religion, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, and status as a Vietnam Era or disabled veteran.

Updated:
The American Meteorological Society is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization.
Federal Tax-Exempt Identification No. 04-2103657

DC Office address: 1120 G Street, NW, Suite 800 Washington DC, 20005-3826
E-mail: onlineocean@ametsoc.org, Phone: 202-737-1043, Fax: 202-737-0445

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