2025 Advancement Awardees
Congratulations to the 2025 recipients of the MACO Advancement Award! These awards are given to faculty who aim to create interdisciplinary courses that bridge human dimensions and marine studies. These approaches cultivate higher-order learning outcomes and transform problem-solving, collaboration, and resourcefulness. We strive to empower faculty to leverage the educational opportunities at the Oregon coast and develop credit-bearing courses to expand student access to these high-impact experiences.
Read more about the 2025 Advancement Award projects below!
Marine Mammals, Culture, and History on the Oregon Coast
Course Leader:
Anna Guasco, College of Liberal Arts
Course Description:
"MAST 399 Special Topics: Marine Mammals, Culture, and History on the Oregon Coast" examines Oregon’s marine mammals, usually studies through a natural science perspective, from a human dimensions perspective. Oregon’s coast has a rich and complicated relationship with charismatic megafauna, including sea otters, gray whales, sea lions, and killer whales. Understanding issues of conservation, management, education, and other urgent challenges related to marine mammals on the Oregon coast requires attending not only to the science of marine mammals but also, to these animals’ relationships with people on the coast, from past to present and into the future. Through a three-day weekend on the coast and hybrid meetings before and after the trip, students will learn about historical and contemporary cultural relationships between people and marine mammal on the Oregon coast.
A humpback whale tail before a dive along the coast. (Photo credit: Susan Lascher.)
Thinking with Oceans
Course Leader:
Rebekah Sinclair, College of Liberal Arts
Course Description:
"Thinking With Oceans" dives into marine issues of scientific and moral concern through lenses of Traditional Ecological Knowledges, Western science, and environmental feminist philosophy. In this transdisciplinary and experientially focused course, students will spend five days on the Oregon coast exploring how different human (and nonhuman) communities conceptualize and relate to oceans; considering different epistemic approaches to Oregon ocean science; learning the role of TEK and feminist thought in conservation; and brainstorming how to improve relations with marine lives and spaces. At Hatfield, we will be joined by special guests like marine and shark biologists, tribal members from the PNW preserving coastal TEKs and species relations, and a local artist who will lead a painting workshop on representations of oceans and ocean creatures. This course also includes an overnight and behind the scenes tour at the Oregon Coast Aquarium!
This photo was taken at the 2024 class, when we visited the Oregon Coast Aquarium to discuss how the critical feminist and Indigenous perspectives we discussed in class might respond to the presentation and consideration of marine issues at the aquarium.
Honors College seminar: To Stir Curiosity: Steinbeck and Ricketts' Expedition to the Sea of Cortez
Course Leader:
Jack Barth, College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
Course Description:
Honors College seminar (HC407) offered spring 2026 by Jack Barth (CEOAS) and Larry Rodgers (CLA). Students will learn how the expedition by author John Steinbeck and marine biologist Ed Ricketts to the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortez, forged their partnership to think about the interconnectedness of all things, from human nature to marine ecosystems. We will read and discuss “The Log from the Sea of Cortez” to share about their trip undertaken in the spirit of fun and adventure – one that stirs curiosity. This seminar includes a day-long field trip to visit and spend time aboard the restored vessel Western Flyer, the actual boat that Steinbeck and Ricketts used in their 1940 expedition to the Sea of Cortez.
The fully restored "Western Flyer," the vessel that John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts used in their 1940 expedition to the Sea of Cortez, tied up in Newport, Oregon. (Photo by Jack Barth)
Blending Ocean & Film Literacy
Course Leader:
Lori A. Cramer, College of Liberal Arts
Course Description:
By focusing on the Big Blue Film Festival (BBFF), this course bridges science communication, storytelling and public engagement. It is designed for students interested in learning about film studies as they relate to marine studies. Films can play a powerful role in shaping public perceptions of marine issues, from conservation to climate change, making media (and ocean) literacy an essential skill for future marine studies professionals. By analyzing ocean films, students develop critical thinking skills, learn how narratives influence policy and advocacy, and explore how visual storytelling can enhance marine science communication. This interdisciplinary approach will equip students to engage diverse audiences and apply creative strategies to address complex ocean challenges.
A student films the harbor in Newport, Oregon. A 'behind the scenes' photo of a videographer at work.
Sensors in the Wild
Course Leader(s):
Drummond Wengrove (Hatfield Innovation Lab), Meagan Wengrove (College of Engineering), & Matthew Johnston (College of Engineering)
Course Description:
Our proposed new course will focus on designing, building, testing, and deploying a sensor for measuring variables such as ocean temperature, salinity, and ocean current velocity. Students will learn about the basics of sensor design, signal processing, mechanical design, prototype fabrication, and get a chance to deploy their sensors in the field near the OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, OR. The course will be offered on campus in Newport. The course will meet weekly for one afternoon that will include a short lecture followed by lab time to work on the respective step in the prototype process. The class will conclude with a field deployment of the developed sensors and follow with techniques and labs focused on data processing.
An undergraduate group poses after successfully deploying ocean drifters in the Yaquina Bay.
Coastal Science Field Methods
Course Leader:
Miguel Goni, Emily Eidam, Jeffrey Beeson - College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
Course Description:
This one-of-a-kind course is designed to train students in quantitative and practical skills, which enhance their career opportunities. It will instill students with confidence for being leaders in applied science fields and provide an intensive experiential learning opportunity outside the traditional classroom. Students will improve their analytical skills as well as soft skills related to safe and inclusive field operations, data generation, data synthesis, and dissemination of scientific products.
OSU undergraduate students deploying a multi-corer aboard R/V Sally off the California Coast.
Communication Skills
for Fisheries & Wildlife Professionals
Course Leaders:
Vaughn Robison - College of Agricultural Sciences
Course Description:
This MACO Advancement Award helped adapt the longstanding "FW 289: Communication Skills for Fisheries & Wildlife Professionals" to a field-enhanced course on the Oregon Coast for the first time ever. This course introduces students to the theoretical and practical dimensions of interpersonal and public communication in fisheries and wildlife careers. Adaptations to this course provides students with unique opportunities to engage with a variety of fish and wildlife professionals who communicate with diverse public audiences through various channels in their careers on the Oregon Coast. These experiences enhance the course’s existing learning materials with interactive classroom activities and hands-on field experiences with these professionals, including as they engage with the public and members of their professional teams.
Students and their instructor, Vaughn Robison, pose for a photo on a trip to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. During this visit, students learned from the aquarium's manager, volunteers, and exhibits how communication is used towards the objectives of education and interpretation.
Expanding Inventory for Teaching:
We thank faculty for proposing supply purchases to improve lab and field course experiences at Hatfield Marine Science Center!
Allen Milligan
(College of Agricultural Sciences)
Project:
Proposal for purchase of compound microscopes to support existing courses at Hatfield Marine Science Center
Scarlett Arbuckle
(College of Agricultural Sciences)
Project:
One-time investment in major equipment: Otter Trawl for Coastal Ecology and Resource Management and other Field Courses
Renee Albertson
(College of Agricultural Sciences)
Project:
Upgrading the student experience in FW302 (Biology and Conservation of Marine Mammals) and other courses at HMSC.