Boston University Affiliated Programs: Sea Education Association

Sea Education Association (SEA) is an internationally recognized leader in undergraduate ocean education. SEA Semester programs are multidisciplinary learning communities that address critical environmental issues of our time: climate change, sustainability, biodiversity, human impacts on the environment, and environmental justice. SEA offers six programs: Oceans & Climate, Coral Reef Conservation: Caribbean, Climate & Society, Climate Change: The Gulf of Maine, Marine Biodiversity & Conservation, and Climate Change & Coastal Resilience. SEA also offers two short-term SEA Summer Sessions—Ocean Policy: Marine Protected Areas and Coral Reef Conservation: Fiji. All SEA programs incorporate an interconnected suite of courses designed to explore a specific ocean-related theme using a cross-disciplinary approach. Combining initial academic coursework in a residential environment in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, with a hands-on voyage aboard a sailing research vessel at sea, SEA programs permit students to put their newfound knowledge and skills immediately into practice. SEA accepts students from all majors, and no prior sailing experience is necessary.

Programs

SEA: Climate Change & Coastal Resilience

A term that explores the environmental issues faced by communities long tied to the sea. To understand the complexity of how climate change affects coastal communities, we need to study marine systems in tandem with the course of societies that populate coastlines around the world. This requires a place-based, multidisciplinary approach, drawing from the sciences, humanities, and arts. The program begins with six weeks of shore-based preparation where students will gain a theoretical understanding of how climate change is impacting human communities and vulnerable coastal ecosystems. This will be followed by a six-week sailing voyage on an oceanographic research vessel. While at sea, students develop leadership and teamwork skills as part of the sailing crew while gathering project data at sea and in port.

A total of five courses (17 or 18 units) bridge the shore and sea components:

Required Courses

• CAS NS 320
• CAS NS 326
• CAS NS 332
• CAS NS 329

Elective Courses (select two)

• XAS NS 226
• XAS NS 325

SEA: Climate & Society

A program based on the social sciences and humanities, this SEA Semester examines human-centered, climate-related issues such as environmental justice, alternative energy, national security, urban design, and human movement, migration, and displacement. The program begins with six weeks in Woods Hole, where students develop individual and collaborative research and communication projects and meet with climate experts. An additional, one-week shore component abroad provides opportunities to interact with climate-affected communities and explore climate change impacts in local ecosystems. During five weeks at sea, students gain practical experience in offshore scientific research and carry out all sailing and oceanographic vessel operations. Students finalize research projects and contribute to oceanic perspectives of climate change through collaborative presentations and storytelling.

A total of five required courses (18 units) bridge the shore and sea components:

Required Courses

• CAS NS 326
• CAS NS 329
• CAS NS 331
• CAS NS 332

Elective Courses (select one)

• CAS NS 333
• CAS NS 433

SEA: Oceans & Climate

An upper-level science term focused on climate change, in particular the role of the oceans in setting the Earth’s climate, with emphasis on carbon cycling. While on shore, students design independent oceanographic research projects to be carried out during the six-week research cruise, develop skills in navigating the fields of science and policy, and learn the fundamental skills for operating a sailing research vessel. Students are guided throughout the term by SEA faculty and distinguished visiting lecturers from the Woods Hole scientific community and from major institutions around the country. At sea, students gain practical experience in offshore scientific research, carry out all sailing and oceanographic vessel operations, and complete their research project.

A total of five courses (18 units) bridge the shore and sea components:

Required Courses

• CAS NS 223
• CAS NS 323
• CAS NS 326
• CAS NS 332

Elective Courses (select one)

• XAS NS 226
• XAS NS 325

SEA: Coral Reef Conservation: Caribbean

This 15-week investigative science and policy program examines the impacts of human actions on Caribbean coral reef ecosystems, the importance of coral reefs to island communities, and the full range of reef management strategies. Beginning with six weeks in Woods Hole, students develop background knowledge to understand history, science, and policy strategies involved in managing coral reefs. In the eight weeks of the remote shore component, students will engage in coral research in seaside scientific field stations and local communities as they develop and refine reef survey techniques and collect initial observations for comparative reef projects. Students will learn from and assist Caribbean island partners from local, academic, and governmental agencies in developing or continuing protective measures for the marine environment on and around coral reefs, all while completing their comparative reef projects.

Coral Reef Conservation: Caribbean will examine how local, academic, governmental, and international organizations and businesses are working together to conserve and sustainably manage Caribbean coral reef ecosystems.

A total of four courses (16 units) bridge the shore and sea components:

Required Courses

• CAS NS 323
• CAS NS 326
• CAS NS 332

Elective Courses (select one)

• XAS NS 226
• XAS NS 325

SEA: Climate Change: Gulf of Maine

This is a collaborative program exploring the oceanographic science behind the rapidly warming ocean basin, how changes impact marine populations, and how local coastal communities are responding to climate change. This program combines a short two-week sailing component with shore-based travel to give students a multifaceted look at the many threads involved with climate change impacts, responses, and mitigation strategies. Utilizing next-generation DNA sequencing techniques, students will investigate how Gulf of Maine marine organism populations are responding to the challenge of a changing environment and will contribute to long-term datasets used by a broad set of partner research institutions. This program will finish with a capstone experience, where students will present their scientific and policy research to the many stakeholders and partners SEA collaborates with throughout the program.

A total of four required courses (15 units) bridge the shore and sea components. Prerequisites are sophomore status and one introductory science course at the college level.

Required Courses

• CAS NS 326
• CAS NS 328
• CAS NS 460
• XAS NS 325

SEA: Marine Biodiversity and Conservation

An upper-level science- and policy-intensive program that integrates the exploration of marine biodiversity with conservation planning for the Atlantic high seas region known as the Sargasso Sea. The program is composed of a framework-building initial four-week shore component, followed by a five-week research cruise and a final two-week interdisciplinary synthesis phase ashore in Tahiti, at GUMP Station. During this program, students will extract, amplify, sequence, and learn bioinformatic pipelines to analyze DNA in the ship’s lab. This program allows students the unique opportunity to engage in real-world research on population genomics and contribute to biodiversity conservation. Students share their scientific research and conservation and policy strategies with experts in the field during a capstone symposium in Tahiti with local experts, scientists, and community members.

A total of five required courses (18 units) bridge the shore and sea components:

• CAS NS 223
• CAS NS 320
• CAS NS 450
• CAS NS 460
• XAS NS 325

SEA Summer Session: Ocean Policy: Marine Protected Areas

Ocean Policy: Marine Protected Areas provides students the opportunity to utilize scientific research to understand evidence-based policies and regulations that guide ocean conservation and management. During the shore component in Tahiti, students will learn from local communities and organizations about the ongoing efforts to establish and maintain marine protected areas within the region. Students will examine case studies to better understand how the integration of traditional ecological knowledge provides successful policy framework. Students will learn skills in oceanographic research and the use of satellite remote sensing techniques for research and monitoring of the high seas. While sailing from Tahiti to Fiji, students will gain hands-on experience by deploying scientific equipment and analyzing samples in the lab aboard the SSV Robert C. Seamans. Data collected from the voyage will be shared with partner governments and institutions to contribute to their ongoing datasets and to initiate new monitoring to understand future changes both in and outside of large-scale Marine Protected Areas.

A total of two courses (7 units) bridge the sea and shore components:

Required Courses

• CAS NS 326
• CAS NS 328

SEA Summer Session: Coral Reef Conservation: Fiji

Through coursework in Fiji followed by a research voyage at sea, students in this summer program will study tropical marine ecosystems, their ecological and socioeconomic roles, and how humans affect coral reefs through terrestrial activities, climate change impacts, and diversity of management strategies. While on shore in Fiji, students will learn about coral reef science, oceanography, climate change, environmental history, and policy strategies used in Fiji. They will also design comparative reef projects to be carried out on shore and at sea in the tropical Pacific. During their time at sea aboard the SSV Robert C. Seamans, students will participate in snorkel-based reef survey techniques by collecting marine ecology and oceanography data across reefs in Fiji. Students will also learn how to crew a tall ship and hone leadership skills, all while voyaging in some of the most remote and pristine regions around Fiji. This four-week program completes one course (4 units).

Elected Courses (1 course is elected)

• XAS NS 226
• XAS NS 325

Additional Information

For more information on program content, application, and tuition, please contact Sea Education Association at admissions@sea.edu.

Mailing address: P.O. Box 6, Woods Hole, MA 02543; phone: 800-552-3633; website: www.sea.edu

Courses

• CAS NS 221 Oceanography (3 units)
• CAS NS 222 Maritime Studies (3 units)
• CAS NS 223 Nautical Science (3 units)
• CAS NS 320 Ocean Science and Public Policy (3 units)
• CAS NS 321 Oceans in the Global Carbon Cycle (4 units)
• CAS NS 322 Maritime History and Culture (4 units)
• CAS NS 323 Marine Environmental History (4 units)
• CAS NS 326 The Ocean and Global Change (4 units)
• CAS NS 327 Cultural Landscapes and Seascapes: A Sense of Place (3 units)
• CAS NS 328 Toward a Sustainable Ocean: Conservation and Management (3 units)
• CAS NS 329 Leadership in a Dynamic Environment (3 units)
• CAS NS 330 Data Communication and Visualization (3 units)
• CAS NS 331 Climate, Society, and the Humanities (4 units)
• CAS NS 332 Environmental Communication (3 units)
• CAS NS 333 Directed Research Topics (4 units)
• CAS NS 433 Advanced Research Topics (4 units)
• CAS NS 450 Advanced Topics in Biological Oceanography (4 units)
• CAS NS 460 Advanced Ocean Policy Research (4 units)
• XAS NS 225 Oceanographic Field Methods (4 units)
• XAS NS 226 Practical Oceanographic Research (4 units)
• XAS NS 324 Advanced Oceanographic Field Methods (4 units)
• XAS NS 325 Directed Oceanographic Research (4 units)

For course descriptions, see the Academics section on the SEA website.