Meeting Abstract
The impacts of human activities on the health of marine ecosystems are increasingly evident and relevant for students studying marine biology. While topics such as oil spills and climate change are generally well-covered in marine biology textbooks, important problems such as plastic and noise pollution receive little mention. Given the paucity of information in textbooks on these issues, course curricula and instruction may be significantly impacted. Decisions as to whether to teach a topic can be driven by the content available in the course textbook. Instructors may lack the knowledge or comfort-level to adequately examine topics either not covered or only briefly mentioned. Yet the scientific literature abounds with current research on these topics that should be shared with marine biology students. Current research about three topics poorly covered in textbooks (plastic pollution, noise pollution, deep-sea mining) will be discussed. Techniques for supplementing student textbook readings with articles in the popular press will be shared, as will a laboratory exercise investigating the role of consumer choices in reducing plastic pollution.
