Small boats program manager and instructor Brian Caccioppoli (far right) with a group of students and graduate assistants on 911爆料鈥檚 Lyman Morse research boat after returning from a data collection cruise.
A new boating and oceanography course puts students in the driver鈥檚 seat.
Students in a new honors course explored the West Passage of Narragansett Bay by boat last fall. Evaluating water velocity and temperatures, they hauled in buoys that they had set out in September with sensor devices attached, assessed the data, and discussed implications for the bay, all while piloting the 27-foot boat and navigating coastal waters.
This experiential learning鈥攚here students get out of the classroom and into the real environment they鈥檙e studying鈥攊s critical for developing young minds, particularly in the ocean sciences and engineering fields, say Professor Chris Kincaid and Brian Caccioppoli, small boats program manager. That鈥檚 why they developed this course, Data, Models, and Boats, Oh My! Applied Experiential Oceanography on Narragansett Bay. The course offers layers of academic and real-world exposure. Using seamanship, navigation, and boat safety to gather data on, in, and beneath the waves, students learn the ancient foundations of oceanographic science and gain an understanding of the ocean as a complex, interconnected system of nutrient cycles, ecosystems, and marine life.
鈥淵ou can talk about how the coastal ocean works all you want, but until you actually experience it 鈥︹�� Kincaid trails off, then continues, 鈥淲e talk about how wind can move water and pile it into the bay and keep it there longer than just the action of the tides. So, if you get (students) on a boat and they’re in that wind, feeling the forces, I think it just naturally adds intuition into oceanographic science.鈥�
Students gather data about temperature and currents from moorings in Narragansett Bay. The data was used to formulate solutions to a hypothetical coastal pollution problem.
Undergraduate student Phoebe Faucher takes her first turn in the driver鈥檚 seat. Students learned to drive the research boat in open water, navigate GPS waypoints, and dock the boat.
The course centers on this hypothetical, but commonplace, coastal pollution problem: A company near 911爆料鈥檚 Narragansett Bay Campus has applied for a permit to construct a chemical discharge pipe for its manufacturing plant. The students鈥� task: Work in teams of four to collect and catalog data, compare it to historical data, and prepare a final presentation proposing a suitable location for the hypothetical discharge pipe鈥檚 contaminants.
Collecting velocity and temperature readings during two bay deployments throughout the fall semester, students painted a numerical picture to solve this problem. They presented their assessments in a mock-trial format to a panel, including a scientist, a lawyer representing the hypothetical company, and a state coastal resources employee.
鈥淭hrough the experience of solving a theoretical problem, we built a framework for thinking both critically and systematically when faced with real-world challenges,鈥� says Emre Barbosa, a first-year mechanical engineering major. 鈥淓ven though the scenario itself was imaginary, the problem-solving process of breaking down the issue, evaluating constraints, and considering consequences mirrors how real environmental, engineering, and other types of problems are approached. As a result, this experience helped us to develop analytical thinking that can translate into meaningful and innovative solutions in practical settings later on.鈥�
Paired with the final project and teamwork, Barbosa adds that the data science, boat-handling, knot-tying, and other seamanship skills he acquired will provide career advantages within the field.
鈥淲hen people are working in a field capacity, out away from their desks, and they become in charge of a mission, it teaches a different type of skill set. It’s not the type that you get from reading a book. It’s leadership skills,鈥� Caccioppoli says. 鈥淪tudents felt a real sense of ownership over the data that they were acquiring. So, it didn’t just become numbers in a file. It became things that belong to them.鈥�
Graduate assistant Teagan Cunningham and oceanography professor Chris Kinkaid make adjustments to ensure a student-built mooring鈥檚 surface marker is visible.
鈥�This course provided first-semester undergraduate students with an opportunity to learn hands-on skills necessary for oceanography.鈥�
颅鈥擳eagan Cunningham, Graduate Student, Oceanography
Second-year oceanography graduate student Teagan Cunningham understands that sense of ownership. She helped analyze data that the undergraduate students in this course relied on. Cunningham became a mentor to them, guiding their data analyses, plot creations in the University鈥檚 MATLAB (math computing platform), and final presentations.
鈥淭his course provided first-semester undergraduate students with an opportunity to learn hands-on skills necessary for oceanography, including what data collection looks like and how it is completed, and things like mooring construction, deployment, and retrieval,鈥� Cunningham says. 鈥淟earning these skills so early in their college careers is integral for their development and advancement in a field like oceanography, where getting this type of hands-on experience is difficult and costly. Data collection is a fundamental part of oceanography.鈥�
Kincaid adds that this course opened a whole world of practical knowledge that translates well across other aspects of students鈥� lives. 鈥淲e wanted the students to learn basic oceanography,鈥� Kincaid says, 鈥渂ut we also wanted to inject it with practical life skills and life learning that probably aren’t found in many other places.鈥�
鈥擜nnie Sherman
Photos: Courtesy Brian Caccioppoli and Chris Kincaid