university oceanographers in Maine,
USA, noticed a few years ago that
their marine science students seemed
unaware of the physics involved in
their subject, focusing instead mainly
on the biology. As a result, they
decided to put together a teaching
resource to convince students that
oceans are an unusually exciting place
to study physics. This article is based
on that resource (Karp-Boss et al.,
2009), which focuses on key concepts
in physics that are also fundamental
in oceanography, and provides a
compelling environmental context for
ideas within physics.