At Palomar College, Oceanography Laboratory (OCN 100L) is offered as an optional 1-unit course that accompanies the 3-unit Oceanography Lecture (OCN 100). The lab exercises presented in OCN100L are designed to help students better understand various oceanic concepts and processes.
Material presented in the lab is synchronized with concepts presented in the Oceanography lecture class. Students may choose to take the lecture and lab classes during the same semester or the lab class may be taken any time after successful completion of the lecture.
The current restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic have forced us into a virtual environment, but we will still cover the same concepts to the same level of detail as a typical face-to-face class. The most notable change, however, is that we will not be able to meet for field trip explorations of our coastline; field investigations are instead presented as a virtual field trip. You are, of course, encouraged to explore these areas on your own following the County and State COVID guidelines for health and safety in force at the time.
If you are enrolled in OCN100 Lab for the Spring 2022 semester, it is important for you familiarize yourself with the course syllabus and overall format for the course. This information will be available on the Canvas website for the section in which you are enrolled.
Please note, as this course is entirely online, there is no printed lab manual to purchase. However, it is your responsibility to make sure that your hardware (computer/laptop) and software applications function properly throughout the semester. You will need to be able to:
- Download and open assorted file formats including PDF, DOC, DOCX, JPG, and PNG.
- Windows Office 365 is available via free download for all registered Palomar students. Adobe Reader is also available as a free download.
- Print out reference materials and worksheets related to lab activities.
- Although the College campus is closed, many options exist within the community to print materials. CopyServe in San Marcos has served Palomar and CSU-San Marcos students and faculty for many years. In addition, commercial locations such as FedEx Office Centers, Office Depot, PostalAnnex, Staples, and UPS Stores provide options for printing materials.
- You must also have access to a scanner or be familiar with use of a scanning app. Although most of the lab activities are fully completed online, some activities require a completed worksheet be uploaded to Canvas as a PDF file.
- Various free smartphone apps exist for scanning documents including Google PhotoScan, Microsoft Office Lens, Adobe Scan, and ScanBot. Google Drive also has a built-in scanner in the app itself. Please note, photographing a document is not the same thing as scanning a document and does not provide the required quality to be read and graded. Make sure you are using an app that provides optical character recognition (OCR) and is thus able to recognize letters/numbers.
Access to lab resources for weekly activities is provided via Canvas or the Oceanography web page under the heading “Lab Investigations.” Active links within the lab activities will help you access the required resource materials for each assignment. Your instructor will remind you of these resource materials as part of the directions for each appropriate lab activity. If you have specific questions or concerns, contact your lab instructor directly. This may be done via email in Canvas.
