Oceanography and Marine Ecology Student Coursebook

OCEANOGRAPHY & MARINE ECOLOGY STUDENT COURSEBOOK

An Interactive Ocean Science Coursebook Series for Independent Learners

Flexible for Grades 8-11

I have been working on this new project for months and I’m very excited about how the coursebook has turned out! Volume 1 is complete and will be available very soon, sometime before July 15 (I kept adding more and didn’t finish in time for the original June 30 date I posted about!).

I wanted to produce something hands-on for homeschool students and independent learners. At the same time, I wanted to keep it flexible for teachers in traditional classrooms, looking for consumable workbooks. I have been teaching Marine Science for 20+ years and a coursebook like this doesn’t exist….. until now! The best part is that it is textbook based with the extension of online interactive activities.

Volume 1: Ocean Processes
$35

✓ 230 full-color pages
✓ Students write on every page
✓ Graphing and data collection
✓ Real-world case studies and scientific data
✓ Interactive online investigations

TAKE A LOOK INSIDE:

This (full-color!) three-volume interactive coursebook series provides a complete introduction to ocean science for independent learners in grades 8-11. The volumes begin with ocean processes, expanding into marine ecosystems, and concluding with human impacts and ocean resources.

Rather than reading from a traditional textbook, students write directly in the coursebook as they complete annotations, questions, diagrams, investigations, graphing, mapping, and data review activities. Each volume emphasizes a different scientific skill, progressing from graphing and map interpretation to field investigations and experimental data collection, and finally applying scientific evidence to real-world conservation challenges and environmental decision-making.

Each volume builds new scientific skills, progressing from graphing and map interpretation to field investigations, experimental data collection, and evidence-based environmental decision-making. This course takes a unique approach to learning about the oceans by combining a traditional textbook with interactive online activities that allow students to explore real-world ocean processes and authentic scientific data.

Volume 1: OCEAN PROCESSES

230 page coursebook. Every page is interactive.

Students learn to interpret maps, graphs, satellite imagery, and real ocean data while exploring the physical processes that shape Earth's oceans. Discover how temperature, salinity, tides, waves, currents, and geology influence marine ecosystems around the world. Students work with real satellite imagery, ocean observations, NOAA data, and interactive online maps throughout the course.

Scientific Skill Focus
Mapping • Graphing • Online data collection • Geography

Topics Include

Ocean Zones • Temperature • Salinity • Buoyancy • Tides • Waves • Surface Currents • Seafloor Formation • Island Formation • Coastlines

Volume 2: THE LIVING OCEAN (available late Fall 2026)

Using the oceanography concepts introduced in Volume 1, students investigate how marine organisms are connected to one another and to the environments they inhabit. Explore ecosystems, biogeography, food webs, animal behavior, symbiosis, biodiversity, adaptation, migration, invasive species, and the complex relationships that shape life throughout the world's oceans.

Scientific Skill Focus
Field investigations • Species identification • Ecological data analysis • Animal Classification

Ecology is explored through specific regions

Antarctic open ocean • The Great Barrier Reef • Alaskan kelp forests and mudflats • Monterey Canyon cold seeps and deep sea corals • Interconnected tropical ecosystems of the Bahamas • Mariana Trench • Indonesian mangrove islands • Tide pools in British Columbia
Northwestern Hawaiian islands • Seagrass Meadows of Shark Bay, Australia • Hydrothermal Vents of the East Pacific Rise • Arctic sea ice communities and haul-outs

Volume 3: THE OCEANS AND US (available Spring 2027)

Explore the many ways people depend on, study, and protect the ocean. Discover marine resources, fisheries, aquaculture, climate connections, conservation, restoration, marine technology, and the careers dedicated to understanding and managing our oceans.

Scientific Skill Focus
Real-world problems • Data interpretation • Making decisions • Career exploration