FSML: Experiential classroom modernization for the Duke University Marine Laboratory

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Duke University is awarded a grant for infrastructural and equipment improvements to a classroom building that serves as the home for experiential learning courses in marine sciences at its Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, North Carolina. These classroom improvements include installation of audiovisual systems, modernization and expansion of casework, replacement of teaching microscopes, replacement of seawater tables, and upgrade of the facility to meet the standards of the American Disabilities Act. The classrooms serve a broad academic base that includes undergraduate and graduate students from Duke University and undergraduates from more than thirty colleges and universities that belong to the Marine Science and Education Consortium (MSEC). The classrooms are also used by the Duke Talent Identification Program summer program, which serves gifted children (grades 8 through 10) from around the country, and by the BOOST program, which serves under-represented minority students at elementary and middle school levels. The Marine Laboratory is a center for natural and social science research and education in marine systems, where NSF-funded researchers and their students study interactions between humans and the environment. Key research themes include conservation biology of marine mammals, bioacoustics and behavior in marine systems, marine microbes and carbon fluxes, environmental sociology, physical-biological interactions in the marine environment, fisheries policy and management, chemical ecology, and geospatial ecology. The coastal setting of the Marine Laboratory behind the barrier islands of North Carolina and the easy access to natural and disturbed environments makes it ideal as a center for experiential learning and the proposed classroom improvements will support these field-learning opportunities.