Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College (KBOCC) is a two-year tribal college located on the shores of Lake Superior. The AMS Ocean Studies course is scheduled to be offered in Spring 2009 as a lab class open to all majors. While it is important for any student to understand the dynamics of the ocean-earth system, a majority of KBOCC students have not even visited the ocean let alone studied it. Effective learning occurs when students can build on what they already know. With Lake Superior in KBOCC's backyard, students interact with this inland sea on a daily basis. This relationship provides a natural starting point for ocean studies.

Currently curriculum and lesson plans are being developed to integrate the AMS Ocean Studies with the Great Lakes. The course will consist of a traditional classroom lecture combined with the online AMS Ocean Studies activities and water laboratories. The AMS online activities will be conducted in the classroom with assistance provided by the instructor. Then students will be expected to repeat relevant activities using Lake Superior or Great Lakes data. Hands-on water laboratories will reinforce concepts in the course. Since many of the physical processes and issues such as pollution and invasive species are the same for the Great Lakes and the ocean, the concerns and solutions will also be discussed. It is hoped that by combining the AMS Ocean Studies curriculum with Great Lakes data and perspectives, students will be able to make the connection between the local inland sea and the global ocean.