COSEE New Collaborations: Toward broader Ocean Learning Communities through field research learning.

海洋探索项目(OIP)将与COSEE海洋学习社区(COSEE-OLC)合作，在关心海洋环境的不同社区之间创建、促进和研究学习合作，这是COSEE-OLC的一个具体目标。OIP和COSEE-OLC的共同目标是让公民更多地了解海洋科学，并了解当前的研究，以便成为更好、更参与海洋环境的管理者。COSEE-OLC目前正在发展一个海洋学习社区，由以下社区组成：基于志愿者的海洋保护和环境团体、海洋科学家、正式和非正式教育工作者、当地商界领袖和科学学习专家。为此，COSEE-OLC提供演讲者演讲、社区聚会、研讨会和实地经验，在此期间，参与者可以互动并学习彼此的专业知识和经验。所有活动都旨在促进海洋科学的学习和促进有关问题的持续对话。OIP为不同群体的中小学生、社区大学团体和服务于市内弱势群体的俱乐部提供基于探究的船上海洋实地体验。与OIP合作将提供研究巡航，作为以志愿者为基础的组织、当地企业团体和海洋科学家之间互动的工具。这些游轮促进了志愿者和科学家在非学术、真实世界环境中的双向交流。COSEE-OLC学习社区成员通过获取海洋科学知识、更好地了解海洋学研究和技术、大规模海洋过程对其工作的影响以及与海洋科学家的新联系而受益。参与的科学家将通过向非科学受众提供材料、看到新的视角和需要思考的问题以及与当地对科学感兴趣的团体建立新的联系来获得经验。合作提供实地学习经验将扩大COSEE-OLC正在开发和测试的学习经验的范围。通过实地体验进行的双向互动进一步推动了该中心的总体目标，即培养有职能、有贡献、懂海洋的公民，他们意识到海洋对他们日常生活的影响。通过这种方法，该中心朝着在不同群体之间建立共同语言的方向发展，以促进以科学为基础的公共层面的海洋教育和学习。通过在普吉特湾实地学习期间让来自环境组织的志愿者、非正式教育工作者和当地商业领袖接触海洋研究，OIP补充和加强了COSEE-OLC的工作。反过来，这些团体会接触到该中心不会直接影响的受众：退潮时在海滩上与志愿者进行随意互动的普通公众，在商务会议后聊天的企业高管同事，或者湿地项目期间的环保活动人士。扩大海洋知识的一个重要手段是通过传播口碑，使海洋科学原理成为共同知识的一部分。此外，参加这些实地体验的海洋学研究生将接触到他们应该了解和欣赏的一系列公民层面的活动，以期对海洋环境产生有益的影响。总体而言，由于这些团体的活动具有自由选择学习的特点，这种合作将接触到比它直接参与的受众更多样化和分布更广的受众。

Ocean Inquiry Project (OIP) will collaborate with COSEE Ocean Learning Communities (COSEE-OLC) to create, promote, and study learning collaborations among diverse communities that care about the oceanic environment, a specific goal of COSEE-OLC. Both OIP and COSEE-OLC share the goal of making citizens more knowledgeable about ocean science and informed by current research in order to become better, more involved stewards of the marine environment.COSEE-OLC is currently developing an Ocean Learning Community composed of the following communities: volunteer-based marine conservation and environmental groups, ocean scientists, formal and informal educators, local business leaders, and science-learning experts. To this end COSEE-OLC provides speaker presentations, community gatherings, workshops, and field experiences during which participants interact and learn from each other's expertise and experiences. All events are designed to facilitate ocean sciences learning and foster continued dialogue about related issues. OIP provides inquiry-based, ship-board oceanographic field experiences to a diverse population of primary and secondary students, community college groups, and clubs serving inner-city disadvantaged groups. Collaborating with OIP will provide research cruises as a vehicle for interaction between volunteer-based organizations, local businesses groups, and ocean scientists. The cruises facilitate two-way communication between volunteers and scientists in a non-academic, real world setting. COSEE-OLC learning community members benefit through acquisition of ocean science knowledge, better understanding of oceanographic research and techniques, the impact of large-scale oceanographic processes on their work, and new connections with ocean scientists. Participating scientists will gain experience by delivering material to non-scientific audiences, seeing new perspectives and questions to ponder, and making new connections to local groups interested in science. Collaborating to provide field learning experiences will augment the range of learning experiences that COSEE-OLC is developing and testing. The two-way interaction through a field experience furthers the overarching goal of the center to cultivate functional, contributing and ocean-literate citizens who are aware of the impact oceans have on their daily lives. With this approach, the center progresses toward building a common language among diverse groups to promote science-based ocean education and learning at the public level.By exposing volunteers from environmental organizations, informal educators, and local business leaders to oceanographic research during field learning experiences on Puget Sound, OIP complements and enhances the work of COSEE-OLC. These groups, in turn, reach audiences that the center would not directly affect: the general public engaged in casual interaction with volunteers on a beach at low tide, a fellow corporate executive chatting after a business meeting, or conservation activists during a wetlands project. One significant means of expanding ocean literacy is through word of mouth distribution to make ocean science principles part of common knowledge. Further, oceanography graduate students who participate in these field experiences will be exposed to a range of citizen-level activities they should be knowledgeable about and appreciate for the beneficial effects on the marine environment. Over all, this collaboration will reach a far more diverse and widely distributed audience than that which it directly engages due the free-choice learning character of the activities of these groups.