Quarterdeck 2.1

Undergraduate Program of Study in Oceanography

By Drew Vastano

[60K] Students at Texas A&M University are signing up for the Oceanography Program of Study, a new course of ocean studies that will begin with the Fall 1994 semester. The Department of Oceanography has designed this optional track for undergraduates interested in extending their interest in the ocean further than a lower-division introduction. Beyond classes and assignments students can carry out independent investigation with a faculty member, field work at sea, and interdisciplinary studies.

The Oceanography Studies Option track is flexible in content and allows students to integrate the track with other academic enrichment programs. Joint participation in the studies option and oceanography's new National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates program (see above) is encouraged, as is joint participation with the senior University Fellows Program. In order to meet students' career needs the study option includes an appropriate mix of classroom, field and individual studies. Of the fifteen hours required for completion, nine must be classroom hours, and students receive one hour of credit for a three-day research cruise in the Gulf of Mexico. The five remaining hours of the track can be composed of either additional classroom coursework or directed research leading to an undergraduate thesis. At completion the Department of Oceanography will award students certificates acknowledging the option, listing courses by name and giving the thesis title.

Several faculty members now work with undergraduate students and their joint interests span a wide range of subjects. Dr. Aubrey Anderson works with Anne Hawes (Geography) investigating the information content of remote acoustic surveys of the sea floors while Dr. David Brooks and Usha Buch (Ocean Engineering) are interested in the ocean circulation near her home island of Trinidad. Dr. Greta Fryxell and Kellie McGinnis (Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences) are analyzing anchovy digestive tracts to determine phytoplankton species present, Ros Downer (Ocean Engineering) is working with Dr. David Schink on a 14C dating process, and Dr. Drew Vastano and doctoral graduate students Charlie Barron and Ed Shaar are helping Laura Cooke (Physics) and Jessica Neu (Meteorology) use satellite observations to study Texas' nearshore ocean jets and eddies. Dr. John Wormuth and Linda Yancey (Biology) are determining variability in Texas Shelf distributions of a zooplankton species called pteropods in terms of vertical migration and the 02 minimum. In all, twelve oceanography faculty members are working and teaching undergraduates as this program begins.


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Updated July 20, 1995