Interested in Oceanography?

OCN 201: Science of the Sea

In Hawaiʻi, we know the importance of understanding the ocean. The ocean brings weather. It provides food. It’s where we go to relax! But understanding the ocean isn’t just for people living on islands and coastlines. The ocean affects everyone—whether they know it or not—and ocean science has never been more important due to the ocean’s key role in climate change.

Oceanography encompasses a wide range of scientific disciplines, all of which are interconnected. The geochemical, physical, and biological characteristics of the ocean all affect each other, which means you can’t study one without considering the others. For this reason, we call the field of oceanography interdisciplinary.

In OCN 201, you will learn the basics of each discipline while making connections between the disciplines along the way. Most of the topics covered are listed below. In the last module, we bring it all together and explore one of the most interdisciplinary (and most important) aspects of ocean science: climate change.

Geochemical

Planetary motion
Formation of matter
Ocean formation
Earth’s layers
Plate tectonics
Features of the seafloor
Seafloor spreading
Sediments and coastal processes

Physical

Role of the sun
Ocean nutrients
Deep ocean circulation
Atmospheric circulation
Coriolis effect
Ocean gyres
El Niño
Surface waves
Tides

Biological

Evolution of life
Marine habitats
Marine plankton
Marine bacteria and viruses
Marine invertebrates
Marine vertebrates
Ocean food webs
Coral reef communities
Deep-sea communities

Climate Change

Carbon cycle
Greenhouse gases
Sea level rise
Ocean warming
Ocean acidification
Ocean pollution
Effects on marine life
Climate solutions

OCN 201 is an online course with a mixture of asynchronous and synchronous content designed to bring the wide world of oceanography to students from any background. There is also OCN 201L which covers similar topics but in a lab format. Students can take 201 with or without also taking 201L. There are no prerequisites, which makes it a great course for students to explore their interests. Just bring your curiosity and appreciation for the ocean. You will learn the basics of ocean science across a wide range of topics and find out how amazing—and often strange!—the ocean is.