This web site is designed as a companion resource to the course Marine Biology. For additional information and prerequisites, check out the Empire State College distance learning catalog.

Welcome to a Unique Opportunity!

In our Marine Biology course, we have now joined hands with The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk (TMA). This web page describes the innovative and exciting opportunities that await you as a student. Just select the links below for access to a wealth of interconnected and interrelated information!

Through extensive filming at The Maritime Aquarium of Norwalk (TMA) and on board their research vessel, a series of DVDs has been produced and provided for your use. Through these DVDs, you will be aboard the Research Vessel Oceanic on the Long Island Sound and be able to go inside The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk.

Along the way, you will take a field trip, observe biodiversity sampling, participate in water quality testing, and learn about the taxonomy, anatomy, physiology, ecology, and behaviors of marine organisms. You will observe and record data on seawater composition and become familiar and conversant with units of scientific measurement.

You will keep a checklist of marine organisms and record their scientific names, quantity, and size for the biodiversity census. You will learn to compose and compare both narrative and graphic presentations of numeric data. You will link to online scientific databases, analyze past results and compare them with your own. You will also select, read, and critique scientific journal articles from sources such as PloS , Ambio, and Nature as well as through the riches of the Empire State College library.

Through the DVDs, you will be in the TMA laboratory facilities and walk among the aquarium displays, getting a unique perspective on marine organism husbandry from behind the scenes. You will also observe and have the opportunity to participate in a dissection of a marine organism. The aquarium videos further illustrate the dynamic nature of marine biology through presentation of living, moving, feeding organisms in order to supplement the rigor of learning biological principles and provide you with a virtual aquarium experience and field study.

Previously, online science courses have had one important drawback when compared to those taken in a traditional college setting: students were not able to participate in laboratory and field studies and were prevented from experiencing science in action with its practical considerations and its breathtaking immediacy. With development of this course and its achievement of an innovative partnership - all that is changing.

Science is a human activity, a mode of inquiry and learning. It is based on observations of the natural world, the measurement of physical parameters, and the compilation and analysis of data. For example, chemical tests reveal vital information about seawater composition; dissections can reveal inner beauty, awesome complexity, and marvelous adaptations to universal life issues. Observing the interaction of structure and function can open our eyes to hidden similarities and relationships among all living organisms.

Careful observations of living animals in their habitat and in the laboratory reveal valuable insight and information about such wide-ranging topics as methods of movement, effective defensive strategies, and keen sensory perception. In addition, as you wander behind the scenes of the aquarium, you be able to observe the work of caring professionals as they nurture different life stages of jellies with the careful husbandry. The aquarists work to provide the delicate balance of nutrients, temperature, light, and space that must be maintained for healthy specimens.

As a human activity, science can have its pitfalls, pratfalls and problems. Did your feet get wet when the wave sloshed over the deck? Did you overfill the test tube when testing for nitrogen levels? Did you spill the reagent or lose count in your titration of the water sample? Did the frantic lobster from the otter trawl nip you? How tiring is it to haul up the heavily loaded mud grab? Were you able to focus the microscope before the amphipod swam out of view? Most of the time, information in scientific papers leaves out the process, challenges, and frustrations of actually “doing” science. The reality of fieldwork and laboratory activities seen in these DVDs can give a new perspective and appreciation for science as an “action adventure.”

Through online discussions of research studies, you will examine competing hypotheses and frame new questions. Critical thinking will be emphasized as well as the development and demonstration of the ability to read, discuss, and reason through scientific and technical studies. Click here for an example of a scientific article and an engrossing synopsis. Now, with an added taste of the practical side of experiments and field studies, scientific papers may seem more meaningful when seen in the context of the process involved.

If you can travel to the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk and spend the time to take one of their biodiversity cruises, you will experience the beauty and biology of Long Island Sound while listening to their topnotch marine educators. Now, you also have the opportunity to sit back and enjoy these amazing videos and experience the cruise, the aquarium and their educators as an integral part of our course.

Get ready! The sky is blue, the water is slate gray and the only thing missing is the pungent sharp smell of salty air and sea and the cold wind whipping your hair. We take a field trip in this course and then spend time in the lab and behind the scenes at the aquarium. We watch the sampling devices lowered into the water and see the strained muscles tugging on the pulley rope. Watch living organisms pulled up from the waters of Long Island sound and observe their anatomy, adaptations, behaviors and interactions. We are there getting a first look at what is caught. Some of the laboratory procedures call for you to observe and take notes; some will invite participation in record keeping, data analysis, and graphing. Welcome aboard our course!

Judith Byrnes-Enoch, Course Developer and Instructor
Photos by George Guba and web page content by Judith Byrnes-Enoch
Web Site updated: Winter, 2008