New approaches for infusing quantitative reasoning into undergraduate marine science education

A recently introduced Marine Science course at Richard Stockton College focuses on modeling physical and chemical processes in closed seawater facilities. The course illustrates to the students mathematical concepts such as recursive expressions, linear equations with limits on the variables, and finding roots of higher order polynomials. This paper describes five topics covered in the course, and mathematical ideas and principles behind each topic. Quantitative reasoning and analysis of these topics is greatly enhanced by extensive and interactive use of computer technology in the course. The exercises described can be used in a variety of undergraduate curricula, as practical illustrations of the concepts that are being discussed.