Oceanography The Official Magazine of
The Oceanography Society
Volume 37 Issue 2

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Volume 37, No. 2
Pages 34 - 34

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SPOTLIGHT • Three-Minute Videos to Learn About Marine Geochemistry

By Elena Masferrer Dodas , Catherine Jeandel, and Adrian Artis 
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The international GEOTRACES program (https://www.geotraces.org/) is a marine geochemical project involving scientists from more than 35 countries that aims to improve understanding of trace elements and their isotopes in the marine environment (Anderson, 2024, in this issue). However, terms such as trace elements and isotopes can be very challenging concepts to communicate to a non-scientific audience. GEOTRACES scientists face this difficulty when explaining their research to the general public. To overcome it, the GEOTRACES International Project Office launched a series of short (about three minutes) educational videos aimed at introducing and explaining the science of the GEOTRACES program to the general public. These videos explain marine geochemical science and concepts such as trace elements and isotopes in an easy and fun format while keeping the scientific message accurate. They also constitute a powerful teaching resource and offer an accessible and appealing method for students to learn about marine geochemistry.

To date, seven videos have been released, each focusing on a specific topic or trace element and isotope (Table 1). The videos are available on YouTube (including subtitles in up to 10 different languages), Youku (in Chinese), and on the GEOTRACES Education (GTEd) landing page (https://www.​geotraces.​org/GTEd). They are also widely distributed on social media—watch and share them!

 

TABLE 1. The series of GEOTRACES educational videos. > High res figure

 

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Bob Anderson, Thomas Arsouze, Karen Casciotti, Tim Conway, Jay Cullen, Mélanie Grenier, François Lacan, Hélène Planquette, Mark Rehkamper, Pieter van Beek, Tina van de Flierdt, and David Wilson as well as all members of the Toulouse Marine Isotopy research group for sharing their expertise and reviewing the storyboards of the videos. Thanks to Yeala Shaked for providing funding through the Israel Science Foundation. The International GEOTRACES Programme is possible in part thanks to the support from the US National Science Foundation (Grant OCE-2140395) to the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR). The international GEOTRACES program is possible in part thanks to the support from the US National Science Foundation (Grant OCE-2140395) to the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR).
Citation

Masferrer Dodas, E., C. Jeandel, and A. Artis. 2024. Three-minute videos to learn about marine geochemistry. Oceanography 37(2):34, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2024.401.

References
    Anderson, R.F. 2024. GEOTRACES reflections. Oceanography 37(2):8–12, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2024.405.
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