Discovery of Coastal Environments (DOCE) is a cooperative project of the University of Rhode Island's Office of Marine Programs, the Roger Williams University School of Education and three public school districts on Rhode Island's Aquidneck Island – Newport, Middletown, and Portsmouth.

Six teachers from each district – 2 elementary, 2 middle school and 2 high school are paired with pre-service teachers from Roger Williams University School of Education. Conducted as a teacher institute, this project offers an integrated experience in marine science and technology for teachers. The product of the program is a set of coastal environment lesson plans created using a backwards design model. The project seeks to fill a need for current, topical science education materials on Rhode Island's coastal environment.

One priority of the DOCE project is to expand teachers' knowledge and understanding of science and technology in order to implement the Benchmarks for Science Literacy established by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the state of Rhode Island's Science Literacy For All Students: The Rhode Island Science Framework.

An objective of the DOCE project is to develop curriculum materials and lesson plans that are aligned with the draft Rhode Island Grade Span Expectations(GSEs)developed for the content areas of Life Science, Earth and Space Science, and Physical Science.

The DOCE site incorporates a curriculum development and alignment tool used by the project's participants that incorporates the latest version of the GSEs, thereby allowing teachers visiting the site to browse materials not only based on concepts, but by the GSEs each lesson targets. The web pages will be published as they are completed in each cycle.