INTRODUCTORY
OCEANOGRAPHYINTRODUCTORY
OCEANOGRAPHY
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The course offered on this website is administered through the office for Distance Education Learning Technology Applications (DELTA) and is primarily for 'off-campus' distance-learning students who generally are not full-time students, but 'on-campus' full-time students who want flexibility in scheduling their classes also are welcome.
MEA 200 offered on the web is an independent study course and may not be suitable for everyone. You must have the discipline to schedule routine "study-time" through access to the posted lessons, meet the deadlines for submission of homework assignments through WebAssign, stay current with the study guides and prepare for the examinations.
Buy the course textbook but concentrate your studying to my online lessons - read each chapter in its entirety and use the book after that as a reference document to look at the figures and tables to which I refer in the online lessons. OF THE TWO, STUDYING THE ONLINE LESSONS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN DO TO BE SUCCESSFUL in this class, because it is from these lessons that most of the HW, and questions on your exams, are extracted.
The prerequisites for this course are high school physics, chemistry and biology, or equivalent. Though a survey course, MEA 200 is a true science course and demanding. You will need to study hard to master the concepts and to prepare for the examinations -- rote memory will not help you very much. Freshman without good science backgrounds are discouraged from taking this course, and suspended students must have my permission to register.
MEA 200 covers all of the science of oceanography. In only one case will you make a numerical calculation -- my particular emphasis will be on the important inter-relationships of the ocean as part of our environment, with a focus on understanding concepts. Included are discussions of the chemical, physical and thermal properties of the ocean and the interactions between the atmosphere and ocean; marine geology, sedimentation and the global effects of plate tectonics; surface and subsurface ocean circulation; ocean wave generation and interactions; ocean tides and their environmental effects; and marine biology and the importance of microscopic plants in the ecology of the ocean and global environments.
The goal of this course will be to teach you to "think like an oceanographer". The course will emphasis the science and the interactions between "things", not rote memory. In fact, I will use the ocean as the vehicle to teach you science more than I will use science to teach you about the ocean.
There are two basic objectives for this course.
If I accomplish my goals, you should be able to stand on a windy seashore at sunset breathing the salt air and watching the waves break on the shore, and both understand and feel what you are observing. I hope that you will be able to carry both the understanding and feeling of the ocean with you the rest of your lives, and that you will share what you learn in this course with your families and friends.
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The required textbook for this course is: Oceanography, An Invitation to Marine Science, Tom Garrison, 5th Ed., Brooks/Cole, Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 511 Forest Lodge Rd, Pacific Grove, CA, 2001. |
This course is designed for you take online, and is equivalent with the identical traditional course that I have taught for more than three decades. The course is divided into four near equal parts as shown below. Note that Chapters 1 and 2 are not included - I recommend you read both of these chapters for background, but you will not be held responsible for their content.
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Chemical & Geological Oceanography |
Chapters 3, 4, 7 & 5 (in that order) |
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Properties of Seawater & Ocean Circulation |
Chapters 6, 8 & 9 |
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Waves and Tides & Coastal Ocean |
Chapters 10, 11 and 12 |
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Biological Oceanography |
Chapters 13, 14, 15 and 16 |
Your performance in this course will be contingent on the following:
There is a total of four regular exams during the semester. Each will be worth 100 points, usually will include discussion (from 38 to 43% of the exam), multiple-choice and matching sections, and will cover only the material presented since the preceding exam (i.e., the fourth exam is not comprehensive and covers only material from part IV).
Examinations are all CLOSED BOOK and will be taken at the DELTA office by appointment (call Karen Potter at 919-515-2138), or by a proctor*, for out-of-town DELTA students. You will be given 75 minutes to take each exam.
*The proctor could be a community or university faculty member or counselor. School teachers taking the course may identify an administrator in their school who would agree to proctor the exams. To get appoval, I will need the name, email address, address and telephone/fax number of the proposed proctor. When approved, I will send exams as email attachments, by fax, or in the mail.
You will have five days in which to schedule your exams (see the Class Schedule) and should do so well in advance - McKimmon Center administers exams for all DELTA classes, and if you do not call early, you may not be able to reserve the time you want.
Optional Comprehensive Examination
As an opportunity to improve your course grade, you may take an optional comprehensive 50 question multiple-choice, 100 point examination that covers all of the material of the course.
If the score of this comprehensive exam is higher than the lowest score on one of the four regular exams, then it will replace that lower score in determining your total points for the semester. If your score on this comprehensive exam is lower than any of the other regular scores, it will not be substituted - i.e., you are not penalized for taking the optional exam. This extra examination is particularly helpful if you get a low score on one of the first three regular exams and need to gain extra points to raise your final grade. You will be given the opportunity to sign-up for the optional exam at the beginning of Part IV of the course.
You will take this optional exam during the final exam period, after completion of the Part IV exam (i.e., you are required to take Exam 4, even if you chose to take the option exam - the optional exam will not substitute for exam 4). You may schedule a 1.5 hour period and take both exams in one period, or you may schedule two different 75 minute periods, but both MUST BE COMPLETED before the last day of the testing period.
The Exam and Grading criteria is given in Grading Criteria.
Throughout the semester, thirty-two, 10 point, short written topical assignments will be posted on WebAssign (see below for login procedures**). All assignments will be due at 11:50 pm on the submission dates shown on each assignment (you can submit them early and resubmit them up to 5 times if you desire - the last submission is the only one subject to grading). Unless you have a documented reason for not being able to complete the assignment, those not completed before the due-date will not be accepted.
The purpose of the assignments (look for additional discussion about assignments in Frequently asked questions) is to give you an extra learning tool and a sample of the type of discussion questions I use on exams. Therefore, it also is not to your benefit to 'copy and paste' your answers directly from the lessons -- this approach will be readily apparent to me. You may find it useful to write your answers using Microsoft Word (or other comparable software) and pasting your answers into WebAssign.
You will receive 0.625 pts for every assignment turned in (for a maximum of 20 pts). Two of the eight assignments from each part of the course will be randomly selected for grading (all students in the class will have the same assignment graded) for an additional maximum 80 points (i.e., 8 x 10 pts). A grand total of 100 pts for the assignments, therefore, will count toward your final grade. All assignments will include my answer key, which you can view after the HW due date.
If you do not turn in the assignment randomly selected, you will get a zero for that assignment. I will grade the assignments prior to each part's scheduled exam and your grades will be posted on WebAssign. If you have questions about the assignments, you may contact me individually by email or by setting up a face-to-face appointment.
While you may work on your assignments together in your groups, you should answer each question in your own words.
**Login procedures for WebAssign:Go to any browser and type in https://www.webassign.net/ncsu/login.html; click on Student Login and complete the NCSU login where your unityid and password ARE REQUIRED. You will then be presented with links to your MEA 200 section (Section 601). On the assignments page will be the listing of Current Assignments and Past Assignments with due dates. This is also is where you will go to find keys for assignments after the due date, and for your grades on assignments. Print the HW schedule and mark some kind of calender so you won't miss a submission.
To provide learning opportunities available through group interactions, by the end of the second week of the semester, I form groups of up to 4 persons and require these groups to meet electronically throughout the semester. Groups that meet will earn bonus points in two ways: 1 point for each member of the group each time the group meets; and 5 points for each participating member of the group if all those participating earn scores of at least 80 on exams. Groups must make a concerted effort to meet - don't leave anyone out. The details for these activities and the organization of the groups may be obtained at Group Activities. You can find out who is in your group by linking to Chat Room Access (you will use the chat room capability of AOL Instant Messaging).
Taking this course online requires the minimum level of hardware given below. In general those requirements are the same for both PC & Macintosh:
Local students may gain access to direct high-capacity Internet connections in the computer labs (which will be equipped with UNIX computers with high level net-browser software such as NETSCAPE, and Real Player software). You will need inexpensive 'walkman-type' earphones to be able to hear the audio in these labs. Some labs are open only to students in a particular college -- you may find public computer lab facilities at CC Facilities.
DELTA students usually must have connectivity through a commercial service provider. If you use a dial-up provider, you are strongly encouraged to have at least a 56 KB modem, because of my use of RealVideo, RealAudio and graphics.
Access to the course homepage and to WebAssign requires a university 'unity' account (a unityid and password). This account is assigned automatically to all registerd students.
Most
of the lectures will make extensive use of audio. Any place you see
the icon pictured to the left, you can click the icon and hear
streaming audio. This requires your computer to have version 5.0 or
later of the Real Player installed and to have connection speed of at
least a 28.8 KB modem (you will find it much faster if you use a 56
KB modem). The Real Player software is available free from
www.real.com.
I
am currently adding video to many of the lessons. Where included, you
will see this video button, which will link you to a recorded file
that also will come to you as a streaming video, also using Real
Player. For some of the lessons, there are two different copies of
each video: one optimized for a 56 KB modem; and one optimized for
hi-speed connections from NCSU dorms or computer labs.
If you are using non-unity commercial accounts (which is perfectly all right) and want to receive email at that location, you have a couple of choices: You can contact Registration and Records and have them officially change your email address; or you may request that your email be forwarded from you unity email account to your commercial email account. I MUST EMPHASIZE, HOWEVER, THAT TO GAIN ACCESS TO THIS COURSE PAGE AND/OR TO WEBASSIGN, YOU MUST USE YOUR UNITYID & PASSWORD) - the system will not recognize your commercial email address.
This forwarding may be done as follows. Log on to a computer at the University (or one that accesses the NCSU server) and send email to accounts@ncsu.edu using your unity email address (this is essential) and ask them to forward your unity email (give your full unityid address) to your 'off-campus' address, whatever that is. Then you should be able to get copies of any unity email sent by you or received by you. When you make the request, send copy of email to me so that I can include your preferred email address in my files.
If you cannot get to campus and have an IMAP account you will have access to your email via http://webmail.ncsu.edu from any computer anywhere connected to the internet. If you are still unable to send them an email making this request, you may call them at 515-4357 and they will see what can be done to remedy the situation. Once the link is established, you only have to renew it annually.
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