The Oyster Reef Recruitment Game: An Example of Active Learning and Engineering in the Marine Science Classroom

The inclusion of interdisciplinary, hands-on learning incorporated with engineering challenges is a great way to teach marine science content as well as foster collaborative problem-solving. To teach about oyster life cycles and the ecosystem engineering that oysters perform, and the role of oysters in southeastern salt marshes, we have developed a game to show the oyster life cycle. Starting with a rendition of musical chairs, students move on to investigating oyster reefs as physical barriers, calculating removal of particulates from the water column, then they mimic filter feeders, and design their own filtering machine.