Background/Question/Methods The Environmental Cooperative Science Center (ECSC), part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Educational Partnership Program (NOAA EPP) was established with the aim of helping to preserve and manage coastal ecosystems by educating under-represented minorities in environmental and coastal sciences and by utilizing scientific research to aid in assessing ecosystem health and informing management. The vulnerability of coastal areas to such stressors as encroaching development, sea level rise, pollution and increased nutrient loading has strengthened the ECSC goal “to facilitate community education and outreach relating to the function and significance of coastal ecosystems”.
The ECSC, led by Florida A&M University and composed of nine partner academic institutions and four National Estuarine Research Reserves (NERR), is attempting to fulfill this mission by educating students, mostly under-represented minorities, and by establishing a center-wide suite of core competency courses, including an aquatic sciences field techniques course. This course is designed for students to obtain hands-on experience at a NERR site partnered with an ECSC institution. Through the course, students learn boating safety, basic aquatic sampling techniques, standard methods for collecting water, sediment and biological samples, and they use and become familiar with standard operating procedures for water quality and nutrient analysis. Students also learn the importance of quality assurance and quality control in data analysis. The main objectives of the course are to increase student field and laboratory competencies, to ensure consistency in sampling and analysis across ECSC institutions, and to enable students to more confidently carry out their own research projects.

Results/Conclusions

An overview of the course will be presented along with research results from the following two Florida A&M University students, both of whom have completed and collected research data during the field course at Apalachicola Bay NERR: graduate student John Branch Jr., who is working on a project entitled, ”Concentrations of Heavy Metals in Oysters and Sediments in Two Estuary Systems: Apalachicola Bay, FL, and Grand Bay, MS, “ and recent undergraduate Judith Sarkodee-Adoo, who has participated in the study “Drought, Reduced River Flow and Sea Level Rise: Exploring Climate Impacts on Carbon and Nitrogen Cycling in the Apalachicola Bay System”.