The Coastal Ocean Environment Summer School in Ghana

Abstract:

Oceanography is a global science, requiring coordinated global observations. However, some coastal regions and populations, for instance most of coastal Africa, are under-represented in global observational databases, global oceanography meetings, scientific publications, etc. With all of this as a motivation, we have been running a one-week summer school, the Coastal Ocean Environment Summer School in Ghana (https://coessing.org), every year beginning in 2015. In August 2020 the school will be run virtually. The school alternates between two institutions in the capital city of Accra, Regional Maritime University (RMU) in odd years and the University of Ghana in even years. Over time the school has grown to include field trips to the beach, hands-on laboratories, a short boat trip with instrument deployments, specialized research projects, and participant research presentations, in addition to lectures. The school is always co-organized by both US and Ghanaian scientists, and has grown to include about 15 instructors per year, from Europe as well as Ghana and the US. The number of African participants has grown to about 100 per year. Many African participants are returnees, attesting to the value of the school. Starting in 2017 the number of participants from other West African countries, especially Nigeria, has grown to about 1/3-1/2 of the total. US student participation has included six undergraduates in 2016, who worked in pairs on three sustainable development case studies, a marine science undergraduate from an HBCU in 2018, and three or more graduate students per year since 2017. Testimonials on the impact of the school can be found at https://coessing.org/testimonials. Some specific success stories of the school include:

1) popular python training sessions which have helped some of our participants obtain permanent positions

2) an Oregon State University MS thesis and in-review manuscript on quantification of the school impact

3) enrollment of a Ghanaian co-organizer in the hydrography PhD program at U-Southern Mississippi (USM)

4) initial discussions of a potential joint USM-RMU hydrography MS program

We aim to inspire Africans to study marine science, and the US/European communities to engage Africa more. A vision for the continued growth of the school will be given.