Resource Guide for the Ocean Sciences Bowl
General Note about the Guide:
This is a GUIDE, not the sole source of information on ocean sciences. The resources listed in this guide should give you a good indication about what to learn in preparation for the regional and final competitions of the National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB).
General Topics of Study:
Please keep in mind that the questions for the NOSB will integrate fundamental concepts in physics, chemistry, biology, geology and math in the context of the oceans. Although your students might not study the ocean sciences in any depth (pun intended!) during school, they should have a grasp of the basic concepts of physics, chemistry, etc., and therefore have a good foundation for figuring out the correct answer to the question. Questions on estuaries and the Great Lakes will be included.
Our list of topics is as follows:
- Physics of the oceans
- Chemistry of the oceans
- Biology of the oceans
- Geology of the oceans
- Social Sciences, including economics, history & human interactions
- Ocean-related technology, including instrumentation, remote sensing & navigation
- Geography
- Current Events
Level of Difficulty:
The level of difficulty of the competition questions will generally correspond to that of an AP high school/introductory undergraduate course.
The Resources:
Books
These texts were recommended by the Technical Advisory Panel of the NOSB. Any ONE of these textbooks will address the breadth of topics that the questions in the National Ocean Sciences Bowl will cover. Purchasing information is provided below, but as a teacher you may be able to request a complimentary copy. You may find earlier editions of these texts by the same author in the library. Generally, any edition published since 1990 will be adequate. Some of these authors (e.g. Duxbury & Duxbury, Gross & Gross and Thurman) have texts for high school as well, but the ones listed below are college level
Duxbury, Alyn C. and Alison C. Duxbury.
Introduction to the World's Oceans
5th ed. Wm. C. Brown. Dubuque, 1997.
ISBN: 0-697-28273-2. Cost: $70.81 (plus s/h)
Contact: McGraw-Hill Companies (Wm. C. Brown was bought by M-H)
Tel: (800) 262-4729
e-mail: customer.service@mcgraw-hill.com
WWW: http://www.mhhe.com/earthsci/geology/oceanograph
Gross, Grant M. and Elizabeth Gross.
Oceanography: A View of Earth
7th ed. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, 1996.
ISBN: 0-13-231788-5.
Cost: $70.00 (plus s/h)
Contact: Prentice-Hall Publishing
Tel: (800) 643-5506
WWW: http://www.prenhall.com
Pinet, Paul R.
Oceanography: An Introduction to Planet Oceanus
West Publishing Co., St. Paul, 1992
ISBN: 0-314-77008-9
Cost: $51.25 (plus s/h)
Contact: Jones & Bartlett (Sells Pinet's book, instead of West Publishing)
Tel: (800) 832-0034
Segar, Douglas A.
Introduction to Ocean Sciences
Wadsworth Publishing, 1998
ISBN: 0-534-54094-5
Cost: $73.95 (plus s/h)
Contact: Wadsworth Publishing
Tel: (800) 865-5840
WWW: http://www.wadsworth.com
Thurman, Harold V.
Introductory Oceanography
8th ed. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, 1997.
ISBN: 0-13-262015-4
Cost: $70.00 (plus s/h)
Contact: Prentice-Hall Publishing
Tel: (800) 643-5506
WWW: http://www.prenhall.com
Other Books
These books cover fewer topics, but the coverage is more in-depth. They have been designed for secondary grade levels. These would be good supplemental texts to any of those listed above.
Curriculum Research and Development Group
The Fluid Earth: Physical Science and Technology of the Marine Environment
3d ed. U. Hawaii, Honolulu, 1996.
ISBN: 0-937049-58-1.
Cost $25.95 (plus s/h)
Contact: Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii Curriculum Research & Development Group
Tel: (800) 799-8111
e-mail: crdg@hawaii.edu
Curriculum Research and Development Group
The Living Ocean: Biology and Technology of the Marine Environment
3d ed. U. Hawaii, Honolulu, 1996.
ISBN: 0-937049-75-1.
Cost $25.95
Contact: (see other CRDG text above)
Greene, Thomas F.
Marine Science
AMSCO Publishing, 1998.
ISBN: 0-87720-071-8
AMSCO order code: R 451 P
Cost: $14.00
Contact: AMSCO Publishing
Tel: (800) 969-8398
WWW: http://www.amscopub.com
Periodicals
The following periodicals are all good sources of information regarding the oceans. While these magazines have been published for many years, for the purposes of the NOSB competition, contestants need only be concerned with information that has been published from 1998 to the present.
Included with the title of the periodical is the URL to assist in locating the magazine. Some web sites have more information than others, such as complete articles on line, topic summaries, etc. All have online subscription information. Your local public library or school librarian should be able to provide more information on where these sources are located in your area.
Discover
http://www.discover.com
National Geographic
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm
Oceanus (the semi-annual report of current research at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
http://www.whoi.edu/generalinfo/publications/oceanus/index.html
Scientific American
http://www.scientificamerican.com/currentissue.html
Science News
http://www.sciencenews.org
CD-ROMs
Ocean Drilling Program's "Mountains to Monsoons"
Cost: none
Contact: Joint Oceanographic Institutions
Tel: (202) 232-3900, ext. 244
e-mail: joi@brook.edu
Tasagraph's "Theory of Plate Tectonics"
Cost: $59 for first CD, $38.35 thereafter (plus s/h)
Contact: Tasa Graphic Arts, Inc.
Tel: (800) 293-2725
E-mail: TasaGraph@aol.com
WWW: http://www.tasagraphicarts.com/progplate.html
Jet Propulsion Laboratory's "A Visit to an Ocean Planet"
Cost: $0 for first CD (order on-line)
Contact: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Tel: (818) 354-4321
E-mail: podaac@podaac.jpl.nasa.gov for multiple copies
WWW: http://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/edu for single copy
URLs (uniform resource locators) for sites on the World Wide Web
There is a lot of good information on the World Wide Web on the oceans. However, there is also no quality-control mechanism. For this reason, we are restricting our recommendations to U.S. Government web sites and "The Bridge". Once you leave the government domain via a "link", there is no certainty that the information you find there is valid. These sites are offered as starting points and, therefore, these URLs are the most general ones for each agency. In some cases, particular pages of note within an agency's web site are listed as well. These sites are a treasure trove of information, but as with most treasures it takes some time to find what you are seeking! We recommend that you use these sites mostly for studying about current ocean-related events
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:
http://www.noaa.gov
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/home/theme-pages.shtml for ocean-related "theme pages"
NOAA WINDandSEA: The Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences Internet Locator
http://www.lib.noaa.gov/docs/windandsea.html
Provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Central Library, this meta-page links to over 750 science and policy related sites
Oceanographer of the U.S. Navy (and subordinate commands):
http://oceanographer.navy.mil
http://pao.cnmoc.navy.mil/educate/neptune/neptune.htm
National Aeronautics & Space Administration's Earth Science Enterprise:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov
National Science Foundation's Directorate of Geosciences
http://www.nsf.gov
U. S. Geological Survey
http://www.usgs.gov
Check out the USGS "Learning Web"
Mineral Management Service (MMS):
http://www.mms.gov
BRIDGE - Ocean Sciences Teacher Resources Center
http://www.vims.edu/bridge
For further information about resources: