Google Hangout with the Team
Hello Oceans MOOCers!
Welcome to the second week of “Exploring our Oceans”, we have a shift in focus to physical oceanography this week and we will be looking at how and why the oceans move in the way they do. We are joined this week by Mark Brandon from the Open University, in addition to support from our three physical oceanography PhD students, Cristian, Josie and Helen.
We will be looking at the issues surrounding tidal power, and the potential costs and benefits associated with this form of energy. This is an emotive topic for many given our need for “Green” energy and the changes that a tidal barrage would bring to some of our most vulnerable habitats. Hopefully this week will give you a broad overview of the issues and help you to form an opinion and debate this with your fellow students.
We will also be talking about how and why the oceans move in the way they do, and how this os largely governed by heat and salt. To illustrate how important these two factors are, we have a simple experiment for you to try at home. Some of our mentors will be providing you a hand with this with a short video they are making, this will be uploaded later this week.
We will also be hosting our first Google Hangout, a live video chat with members of the mentor and educator team, where you can ask us anything related to the course. We will be joined this week by Simon Boxall and Derek Keir, admissions tutors for our Oceanography and Geophysics degree programs, who are on hand to help answer questions from anyone looking to pursue a career or further study in ocean and earth sciences. This will start at 1pm on Thursday the 6th.
We offer a range of courses at Southampton including bachelors degrees in Oceanography, Marine Biology, Geology and Geophysics, in addition to foundation year options for people without a traditional A-Level background. Ocean and Earth Sciences also have a thriving postgraduate community, with a range of taught and research degrees on offer. If you are currently involved in the UCAS process at college or school, or you are interested in finding out more about studying for a career in this field, please use twitter (@UoSoceans) or the comments section below to ask a question, or join us on the blog, YouTube or Google+ on thursday to chat live (details of the hangout will be posted later in the week).
You take a virtual tour of the NOCS here, the home of Ocean and Earth Sciences and watch a short video of a tour of the waterfront campus here: