Your week
Welcome back.
Explore the forces that shape our ocean—one observation at a time.
2/3weekly goal
Continue learning
Continue learning
Pick up where you left off.
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Ocean connection
Why does layering matter?
Stratification controls whether nutrients from the deep ocean can reach sunlit surface waters—connecting physics to life.
Course modules
Learn by changing the ocean.
Make a prediction, test it, explain the evidence, and then transfer the idea.
Interactive lab
Module
Step 1 of 4
Retrieval practice
Practice what matters most.
A set of questions for your selected topic.
Ask a question
Study coach.
Work through what you are stuck on. It asks questions back—that is the point.
AI-generated study help. Written by a language model, not by your instructor, and not faculty reviewed. It will not tell you which practice answer is correct — that is deliberate, so the practice still works.
Your questions and its replies are stored against your course code, and the instructor of your section can read them. Do not type your name, UIN, email address, or anything personal.
Your learning
Progress with a purpose.
Use this view to choose what to revisit—not to chase a score.
Critical concepts
Mastery evidence
Question bank
Chapters worked through
Module progress
Browser-local pilot data| Module | Status | Steps | Mastery | Next action |
|---|
Critical concept map
The ocean is one connected system.
Follow each idea from where it is introduced to where it explains a new observation.
Instructor
See where to begin the lecture.
Live course data, for the sections you teach.
Pre-class signal
Objective mastery
Misconception queue
Weekly reminder
Pushes to the course bell. Not email.Access for every learner
Accessibility and help.
The pilot is designed for keyboard, touch, screen-reader, zoom, and reduced-motion use.
Display preferences
Reduce nonessential movement throughout the interactives. Scientific state changes remain available as text.
Interactive alternatives
Every lab includes a live textual summary of the current scientific state. Density also exposes all parcel values in a sortable table.
Browse modules →Report a barrier
Include the page, device, browser, assistive technology, and the task you were trying to complete.
Email the course team →Your collection
Climb the food web.
Badges track what you have completed and how deeply. The ranks follow a trophic ladder: you begin as a primary producer and work toward an apex predator.
A note on size and trophic level
The humpback whale near the top of this ladder is enormous, but it feeds on krill and small fish — its trophic level is lower than the far smaller bluefin tuna's. Body size and position in the food web are different things, which is the point Chapter 12 makes about food-chain efficiency.
Your account
Sign in to carry your progress.
Signing in with the course code your instructor issued keeps your progress with you across devices. You can use the site without signing in.
Course sign-in
Signed in as .
Shown only to you. Saved to your course code so it follows you to another device, and cleared when you sign out or delete your data.
What signing in changes
Your progress is stored against your course code instead of this browser, so it follows you to another device. Work you have already done in this browser is carried over the first time you sign in.
What is stored
Your course code, a password hash, and your course progress. The code is issued by your instructor and is not derived from your name, email address, or student number. A display name, if you choose one, is saved against your course code and shown only back to you.
Read the privacy notice →Pilot data
Your learning, kept minimal.
The public pilot uses a random signed browser identity and does not request your name, email, student ID, location, or device fingerprint.
What is stored
Module steps, mastery estimates, practice selections, confidence, optional response time, reduced-motion preference, and a limited set of learning events.
Why it is stored
To restore your progress, improve explanatory feedback, identify confusing questions, and evaluate whether the learning activities are useful.
Your control
You can delete the server record, signed browser identity, and local progress associated with this browser immediately.
Who can see it
Without signing in, nothing stored can be linked to you by anyone.
If you sign in with a course code, the instructor of your section can see the activity recorded against that code: whether you have started, how many practice questions you have answered, how many were correct, and when you were last active. They see the code, never your name — the list matching codes to people is held by your instructor and is not stored here.
The study coach is included. If you use it while signed in, the instructor of your section can read the questions you typed and the replies you were given.
Weekly reminders stay in the course. The instructor can post a message to your section’s bell. Opening it records that you read it against your course code. Nothing is emailed, and no notification is sent to a phone or another site.
Important production boundary
Institutional authentication, Canvas identity matching, enrollment records, research use, and longer retention require separate TAMU review and approval. Pilot analytics must not be treated as research data without that approval.