How Do We Study Oceanography?

EEEWWWW... I Do Not Want to Study!

When anyone mentions studying, I want to run as fast as I can in the opposite direction and yell, "No, Thank You!"

What is Oceanography?

Oceanography covers many topics, including exploring the mysteries of the Earth's oceans and seas. It's not just about the water but also what's under and above it. To study oceanography, you'll need to know some biology, chemistry, physics, and even a bit of geology.

The Four Parts

The four different parts of oceanography are geological oceanography, physical oceanography, chemical oceanography, and marine oceanography.

Before we move on, see if you can sort the oceanography fields below.

The different systems make studying oceanography somewhat complicated. This course will break it down by delving deeper into each part of oceanography.

Dive in

Think about climate change for a moment.

Did you know that the ocean plays a crucial role by soaking up carbon dioxide as part of the whole chemical oceanography gig?

Ocean acidification As it takes in more carbon, the ocean becomes more acidic, which is like a puzzle piece in the world of physical oceanography. This acidification is shaking things up for the ocean's organisms, and that's where marine oceanography comes into play. We can turn to geology for answers to understand these processes over millions of years.

And hey, those wild weather swings that come with climate change?

Yup, we can study those with physical oceanography.

The Scientific Method Recap

The Scientific Method is how we learn and challenge science. While it is called the scientific method, as if it is something definitive, this process can be done in various ways. The biggest steps are that someone predicts something, tests are conducted to test the question or prediction, and finally, something new is learned. Sometimes, the greatest learning comes through a hypothesis being rejected. Let’s recap the parts of the scientific method as we will discuss it for the rest of this course.

Scientific Method Steps 1 - 6.

Select Each Step Below to Learn More:

Experimental Design

Experimental design is not just when your mom tries to redecorate the house by herself.

Experiment Design is the plan or procedure created to test a hypothesis. In trying to solve a focused problem, there are a few things to consider, including the variables and the constants, the control group, and the sample size.

Variables are the areas of concern when experimenting.

There are two types of variables: independent and dependent variables.

Independent variables are the variables that scientists can manipulate to test their findings. Typically, this is the factor that we, as scientists, will explain the problem we observe.
Dependent variables are what we measure and expect to change due to changing the independent variable.

Then, some variables need to be held the same throughout the experiment. We don’t think these variables will change the results; however, we must have every other factor constant to draw conclusions based on the one variable in question. These variables that are not changed throughout the experiment are the constants.

With every experiment, there has to be a group that does not have exposure to the independent variable. However, this group will still go through the entirety of the experiment to use as a baseline to compare everything else. This group is referred to as the control group.

In any meaningful experiment, there must be more than one trial.

Pulling data from one trial is like rolling a die once and determining every side is labeled that number based on the single roll.

For the scope of this course, three trials are typically the minimum sample size unless otherwise noted. In real-world experimentation, the larger the sample size, the more likely the results are reproducible.

What's The point_science (1)

Oceanography is a complex science encompassing geology, chemistry, physics, and biology; this makes it a complex but fascinating field of study essential for understanding the ocean's profound impact on our planet. We must go through a process to study different topics or problems we encounter in oceanography.

UP NEXT: How Do We Represent Our Findings in Oceanography?

[CC BY-NC-SA 4.0] UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED | IMAGES: LICENSED AND USED ACCORDING TO TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION - INTENDED ONLY FOR USE WITHIN THE LESSON.

Image(s) used under license from Shutterstock.com and may not be repurposed."