This award provides continued funding for COSEE California (COSEE CA) which has demonstrated its ability to develop successful, catalytic activities that spark and nurture collaborations among scientists and educators to advance ocean literacy. COSEE CA combines the resources and expertise of original partners, Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley, with two new partners, San Diego Unified School District and The College of Exploration. With the goal of increasing public awareness and understanding of the ocean, COSEE?CA will embark on three major initiatives: 1) Supporting the Ocean Literacy campaign (developing and validating an ocean sciences learning progression to accompany the Ocean Literacy scope & sequence, and disseminating the Ocean Literacy framework); 2) Strategic national dissemination of Communicating Ocean Sciences to Formal and Informal Audiences by streamlining the implementation process to reach large numbers of new institutions; and 3) supporting sustained partnerships among teachers, facilitators and researchers to develop cutting-edge educational tools that promote inquiry through the use of technology-mediated visualizations, simulations and investigations. Together, these three initiatives comprise a coherent strategy for building the nation?s capacity for putting into practice the Essential Principles of Ocean Literacy at all levels of formal education. COSEE CA is focused on the following objectives: 1) bring the content knowledge and technology tools of ocean scientists into the world of K-12 and postsecondary education; 2) build Network-wide collaborations that provide COSEE with national standing and a collective voice; 3) develop and disseminate model programs that increase the public?s understanding of the ocean; and 4) conduct educational research to bring ocean sciences into mainstream science education curriculum and standards.
The College of Exploration was a collaborative partner with the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley and Scripps Institution of Oceanography and San Diego School District in the COSEE California project. Our role was to advance the understanding of ocean science to formal and informal education audiences. We researched ways to communicate about ocean literacy to the general public using large group, technology supported and web based methods. We supported online decision-making about ocean literacy definitions, principles and concepts and their relative priorities and importance. The research enabled scientists and educators to continue to develop approaches and practices to advance Ocean Literacy, Ocean Literacy is an understanding of the ocean's influence on you - and your influence on the ocean. This definition and supporting essential principles and fundamental concepts have provided guidance for NSF requests for proposals and also to help NOAA and other organizations develop research, education and communication strategies about the Ocean. Our work as part of COSEE CA has resulted in the development and maintenance of the website www.oceanliteracy.net and the gathering of a community of practice around ocean literacy.The website continues to be a focal point for the ocean literacy efforts in the USA and beyond. This website contains the definition of ocean literacy, 7 essential principles and 45 fundamental concepts. Further work by the wider ocean education and science community helped to create a K-12 scope and sequence. This is displayed as a series of graphical learning progressions that show a further over 700 individual learning concepts linked together in a logical learning sequence. The principles are: 1. The Earth has one big ocean with many features. 2. The ocean and life in the ocean shape the features of Earth. 3. The ocean is a major influence on weather and climate. 4. The ocean made Earth habitable. 5. The ocean supports a great diversity of life and ecosystems. 6. The ocean and humans are inextricably interconnected. 7. The ocean is largely unexplored.
