Using Authentic Oceanographic, Climatic, and Polar Data with Students: Improving Student Understanding of Environmental Phenomena

Background: Information on climatic change, ocean acidification, and the melting of polar ice sheets fill today's headlines. Students typically lack experience in finding, collecting, or interpreting real oceanographic or climatic data. They are usually provided with data-sets that are not current or representative of actual environmental conditions, or of interest to current scientific investigations. As a result, most students do not have an appreciation of the scope or impact of environmental changes occurring both in the past and in the present day. The focus of this study included climate change, ocean drilling core data from the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), phytoplankton/zooplankton studies, and satellite studies of the Monterey Bay, the Arctic, and areas of Paleoclimate interest. Methods: Researchers compared student understanding of paleoclimatic concepts, along with present day oceanographic, climatic, and polar phenomena, when taught using authentic data and data analysis with non-inquiry based instruction. Techniques used in the study by students included the visualization of ocean cores and analysis of cataloged ocean core data. Techniques also included the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing techniques to analyze present day oceanographic, climatic, and polar phenomena. Results: Study results indicate that students gained a greater understanding of paleoclimate and contemporary environmental phenomena when using authentic data-sets when compared with non-current data-sets. Students also performed better in designing investigations and interpreting results.