Ocean 2YC: Expanding a Community of Oceanography Two Year College Instructors

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Twenty two community college oceanography faculty will be supported to attend a workshop and participate in a session at a 2014 joint conference of the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO), The Oceanography Society (TOS) and the Oceans Section of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). The workshop will focus on teaching ocean sciences at Two Year Colleges (2YC) and the conference is a bi-annual, joint meeting that brings together a large percentage of the national and international oceanographic science community. Community colleges are a critical part of our educational system, and serve almost half (or approximately 8.2 million) of all U.S. undergraduate students (National Science Foundation, 2012). Further, these programs serve a substantial portion of minority students, with 32% of students enrolled in community colleges being an ethnic minority and 61% being female (American Association of Community Colleges, 2012). Yet, community college faculties rarely have access to professional development funds that allow for national conference attendance and the critical interactions that lead to higher quality instruction (Geo2YC Workshop, 2010). Community college oceanography faculty face some startling challenges in their classrooms, including lack of access to current scientific research, lack of equipment, and an extremely large range in student interest and abilities in one course section. In order to encourage teaching of ocean sciences at 2YC and the development of connections between 2YC faculty and ocean scientists, a workshop on teaching oceanography will be held prior to the conference and a session on "Undergraduate ocean science education in the 21st century: an exploration of successful practices" will be held during the conference. This effort also contributes to the development of educational communities that will make use of Ocean Observing Initiative data.