Page 28 - AlertDiver_Spring2013
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O
cean Classrooms, an innovative new system
of marine education, is making a splash,
particularly in the fastest-growing segment of
scuba divers — divers under 30.
Founded in 2008, Ocean Classrooms combines science
education with underwater exploration using cutting-edge
technology such as underwater robotic cameras and data-
acquisition devices. Ocean Classrooms’ main offering, Marine
Science 101, is geared toward middle- and high-school students,
but anyone can enroll in the program, even working professionals.
Marine Science 101
Marine Science 101 can be incorporated into a school
curriculum with labs, lectures and discussions, or it can be
taken independently online. The content comes from a highly
regarded textbook, Life on the Ocean Planet, and the course
also incorporates dive-training modules and information
on how to affiliate with a local dive center or resort for
instruction and certification.
Through text, videos and narrated presentations, the course
covers oceanography, marine ecology and the interplay between
humans and the marine environment. Additionally, students
are given Scuba Slates™ — real-world scuba-diving scenarios
that connect marine science with underwater exploration,
linking the material learned to its practical application.
Eyes in the Ocean
Students in Ocean Classrooms courses experience the
underwater world in real time through robotic underwater
cameras and data-acquisition systems called Blue Eyes™. This
patent-pending system streams continuous live video from
various sites including kelp forests, coral reefs and seagrass
beds. Webcams are currently installed in the British Virgin
Islands, Cayman Islands and Channel Islands, and many more
sites are slated for installation.
Blue Eyes is the only self-cleaning, submersible camera
housing commercially available in the world. An entry-level
Blue Eyes system features a fixed, submersible camera housing
and a high-definition camera. High-end models allow user-
controlled pan, tilt and zoom functions. Sensory equipment
can be added to any submersible housing for sampling
conductivity, pH, temperature, velocity, turbidity, dissolved
oxygen and much more.
From Academics to Open Water
Students who complete the academic program may then sign
up at an affiliated dive center for pool and open-water sessions
and become certified divers. Scuba Schools International (SSI)
is currently accepting Ocean Classrooms accreditation, and
other training agencies may soon follow suit.
Graham Casden, the founder and CEO of Ocean
Classrooms, credits the success of Marine Science 101 to the
fact that it provides a dynamic, new approach that makes
learning exciting. “Traditional texts are becoming antiquated,
and Ocean Classrooms is on the cusp of where the dive
industry is going,” he said.
Creating Ocean Ambassadors
Casden hopes this type of learning will promote conservation
and make young people “ocean ambassadors.” Alex Brylske,
a dive-industry expert who is Ocean Classrooms’ scientific
advisor and curriculum consultant, shares this conservation
goal. “As Sylvia Earle says, ‘You can’t love something that you
don’t experience,’” Brylske said. “The vast majority of high-
school kids will never see underwater, but Ocean Classrooms
enables them to do so through a virtual field trip.”
For schools, Ocean Classrooms offers an opportunity to
deliver a modern approach to teaching that supports state
and national mandates for science education as well as
parental demands for experiential learning, which features
problem solving, real-world applicability and holistic thinking.
Colorado is the first U.S. state in which schools have adopted
Marine Science 101, and plans are under way to launch the
program in California and Florida in 2013.
Learn more or enroll at
.
— Hillary Viders, Ph.D.
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SPRING 2013
DIVE SLATE
//
Ocean
Classrooms
Education for a
changing world
GRAHAM CASDEN
Blue Eyes self-
cleaning camera
systems stream
high-definition
underwater
video to students
around the world
in real time.
