Citizen Science, Education, & Outreach by the Southwest Acoustic Ecology Lab

Researcher Anne Simonis teaching children about acoustic recorders. Credit: Lazaro Herrera

Ocean Acoustics

The study of sound in the ocean is interdisciplinary and considers math, physics, electronics, computer science, and ecology. This provides a natural opportunity for community engagement in formal education (K-12), informal science learning (museums), and online crowd-sourced citizen science participation. 

By initiating creative approaches for public participation in our science, we hope these efforts will lead to:

• New avenues for increasing scientific literacy
• Increase diversity in ocean sciences
• Encourage  ‘out of the box’ ideas for new avenues of research
• Expand data collection/analysis potential

NGSS Curricula co-created with San Diego K-12 teachers

• Elementary: Dolphins have needs
• Middle school: You can recognize different species by the sounds that they make 
• High school: Ocean noise pollution impacts marine mammals

Learn more about opportunities through our Sound Bytes Science Blog, Interactive Science Exploration Map, and with these videos on Ocean Sounds, Science Education, and more.

More Information

• Southwest Acoustic Ecology Lab
• ADRIFT in the California Current
• Free and Open Source Software for Acoustics (FOSSA)
• Science Blog: Sound Bytes