Problem:  Undergraduate students in science and engineering curricula are frequently bound by disciplines, taught multitudes of reductionist facts endemic to those disciplines, and evaluated by competitive measures, yet they are expected to emerge into professions that function in interdisciplinary, problem-based modes demanding creative and cooperative action.  Approaching learning in a constructivist, collaborative manner, using Earth system topics of environmental significance, and applying modern as well as traditional technologies for science data acquisition and analysis can offer students a unique opportunity to develop knowledge, attitudes and skills that prepare them for 21^st century careers in science, mathematics, engineering and technology.

     Goals:  A prototype course was designed and tested for use in higher education institutions and field facilities in coastal areas. The course was taught with subject matter of the Earth Systems sciences, intentionally focusing on relationships among elements of the hydrosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere and biosphere of coastal and offshore areas, and driven by environmental questions that link the systems with human society. Methods introduced in the course used a combination of high-tech, high-touch tools: satellite imagery, datasets on line, digital models of systems, as well as traditional field technologies for ground truth measurements and supplements to more global datasets. The course methodologies were also designed to integrate disciplines.  Using the tools of the modern scientist and engineer, students in the course examined field data and authentic environmental issues that involved living and nonliving components of coastal settings. Students used techniques of assembling information in the context ofmaking decisions. Processes of instruction were based on construction of learning through experiences, collaborative group process and problem-based learning. Given that professional positions in science more and more frequently require cross-disciplinary activities and reliance on the expertise of diverse contributors, the methodology mimics life. Alternative assessment was used to evaluate team projects and course outcomes in non-competitive ways.

     Themes driving the development and implementation of the course were a combination of science and pedagogy applied in an undergraduate context and transportable geographically:

• Use of a systems approach to interdisciplinary science studies
• Available data on characteristics and issues of coastal environments worldwide
• Advantages of combining technologies of digital and field techniques
• Problem-based collaborative learning on environmental issues.

     While the pedagogical aspects of the course do not lend themselves to transmission on-line, some individual instructional modules are useful outside the full course context.

Digital and Field Technlogies for Coastal Environment Studies was developed at The Ohio State University with the support of NSF-DUE 0088255, Drs. Rosanne W. Fortner and Carolyn J. Merry, Co-PIs. The course was cross-listed between the School of Natural Resources and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Geodetic Science, and taught in Summer 2002.