LABORATORY REQUIREMENT: Students who take this course spend a minimum of 30% of their time engaged in laboratory exercises. All DoDEA science courses have this minimum 30% time period for laboratory exercises.

Major Concepts/Content: Marine Biology is designed to be an elective, introductory course to the identification and classification of organisms most common to the region in which the course is offered.  Information is presented in an integrated approach with science as inquiry, science & technology, science & social perspectives, and the history & nature of science.  The course integrates unifying science concepts and processes of systems, order & organization, evidence, models & explanation, change, consistency & equilibrium, and form & function. 

Scientific inquiry and understanding about inquiry are emphasized through practical implications and meaningful applications.  Topics students study include ecological concepts of the sandy beach, rocky shore and benthic communities, seaweeds, planktonic forms, plankton and their relationship to marine life cycles, nekton, benthos, marine bacteriology, marine biological resources, and marine pollution.  Additional special topics may be selected for study.

Major Instructional Activities: Based on the philosophy that scientific knowledge is best acquired through inquiry, the course uses a variety of techniques to introduce, stimulate, explore, and reinforce major scientific concepts, theories, principles, and skills.

Instructional activities are staged in appropriate settings.  They include laboratories, classrooms, forms of technology, and field studies.  Teaching strategies include investigations, demonstrations, discussions, and hands-on/minds-on experiences.

Major Evaluation Techniques: All aspects (e.g., ability to inquire, scientific understanding of the natural world, and understanding of the nature and utility of science) of progress in science are measured using multiple methods such as individual and group performances, projects, interviews, reports, student-generated works, and/or conventional testing.

Essential Objectives: Upon completion of Marine Biology, students should be able to:

• Engage in full and partial scientific inquiries to design, conduct, and communicate scientific investigations to explore ideas about the natural world.
• Use scientific inquiry to design and conduct scientific investigations to meet a human need, make a decision, solve a human problem, or develop a product.
• Recognize and describe the interrelationship between science and technology.
• Apply the tools of technology (e.g., computers) in scientific endeavors.
• Identify qualities inherent in scientific behavior (e.g., reasoning, insight, energy, skill, and creativity).
• Discuss contributions of men and women of various social and ethnic backgrounds to science and technology.
• Apply science concepts to making decisions (weighing risks and benefits) about students' personal health and well-being.
• Describe how information is acquired through observations and measurements of marine phenomena.
• Demonstrate a manifestation of the critical thinking skills by examining marine biological-oriented problems.
• Describe the structure, function, and behavior of representative marine life forms.
• Describe interactions between physical and biological factors occurring in various marine environments.
• Identify and describe major energy transformations in the marine environment.
• Identify and analyze current issues in marine science and technology.
• Describe the impact of current marine-oriented issues on human and other populations.

Last Revised: July 21, 2005