Certification of Alabama’s Standards of Teaching – Marine Science (COAST-MAR)

Marine Science is an interdisciplinary field that integrates biology, physical science, chemistry, geology and environmental sciences. Its interdisciplinary nature allows students to see across the silos of these individual classes and realize the connections among and explore the application of other science courses through the study of engaging topics.

Marine Science is also a STEM field as it integrates these sciences, the technologies that are used to sense, explore, study and interpret information, the engineering of these technologies to work in an environment so different from the one humans inhabit and mathematics to collect, analyze, interpret and visualize data, develop models, design technologies and more.

The National Science Teachers Association has stated that one cannot be scientifically and environmentally literate without being ocean literate. Alabama’s Marine Science course is focused on achieving Ocean Literacy which is the understanding of the ocean’s influence on us and our influence on the ocean. The course standards are organized around the disciplinary core ideas embodied in the Essential Principles of Ocean Sciences and the accompanying fundamental concepts. It incorporates the scientific and engineering practices that reflect the scientific processes used by scientists.

We thank all classroom teachers for sharing marine science with Alabama’s students and furthering a scientifically and ocean literate society. To obtain the waiver required to offer Marine Science at your school, you must participate in an ALSDE/ DISL workshop focused on understanding the 2025 Alabama Marine Science Standards. To obtain the waiver and be credentialed to teach marine science, please complete the form found here. Note that the form asks you to upload the curriculum you have developed for your school, so please have that document (pdf format preferred) ready. If you chose to, you may upload the curriculum after the workshop in which you are participating. You will find the ALSDE Assurances document here.

If you have questions or concerns about the waiver process, please contact the Dauphin Island Sea Lab at dhpcoast@disl.edu. Please do not use this email for questions about other DISL or Discovery Hall Programs. Note that this waiver applies to your school/district. If you do change schools, please return to this form to update your information as we report all approved waivers to ALSDE.