Ocean literacy in youth from the prairies

Ocean literacy is an important component of environmental literacy because ecological services performed by the world’s oceans affect the distribution of heat and water, which directly or indirectly influences virtually every aspect of life on planet Earth. The importance of oceans on human physical health and economic prosperity, and the effects of human activity on ocean health, are not fully appreciated by the general public. This is especially the case for inland populations that rarely, if ever, visit the ocean. Here, we report ocean literacy of youth aged 9–14 located in the center of the North American continent, before and after a 4-day program on ocean literacy hosted at an oceanarium. Of the 31 participants in this sample, six had never been to the ocean, another nine had been to an ocean only once in their lives, and seven had been to the ocean fewer than 5 times. The pre-test administered at the onset of the workshop showed an average pre-knowledge across the seven principle..., We collected demographic data for age, sex, grade level, and the type of school they attend (public, private, or home-schooled). Because we were interested in knowing exposure of inland populations to oceans, we asked participants if they had even been to the ocean, with response options (a) Never, (b) Once, (c) More than once, (d) more than five times.
Development of the Ocean Literacy assessment tool
Knowledge questions (Table 1) were taken from a much longer list provided by Chen et al. (2020). We chose this resource because the questions have been pre-vetted and validated using psychoanalytic tools to ensure reliability. We selected 14 questions from Chen et al. (2020), with two questions assessing each of the seven ocean literacy principles. Thus, the survey assessed pecan literacy across all seven areas while keeping the survey short to be easily implemented during the workshop.
Description of Ocean Literacy activities in the JACK workshop
The Junior Aquarist Camp for Kids (JACK) ..., , # Ocean literacy in youth from the prairies

Dryad DOI: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ffbg79d1z

## Description of the data and file structure

There are two files: Questionaire.csv and Survey_responses.csv

Ocean literacy questionnaire (* indicates correct answer)

Survey responses

Column headings are:

Participant: the 40 participants for whom we received parental consent, and who filled out the survey.

Sex: Female (F) or male (M)

Grade: grade level in school for the following fall

OceanN1O2MO3MF4: number of times they had been to the ocean; 1=never, 2=once, 3=more than once, 4=more than five times

Column headings for survey responses have the Principle of Ocean Literacy (1-7) as the first numeral, whether it was the pre- or post-workshop iteration of the survey, then the question number Q(1-14), with two questions per principle. Survey responses: 1=correct, 2=incorrect.

KnowTotPre = total score out of 14 on the knowledge survey before the workshop
KnowTotPost = total score out ..., The data reported in this manuscript were from surveys completed by minors aged 9-14. All materials, protocol, and assent language, survey questions, and parental consent forms were reviewed and approved by the MSUM IRB. We only report data for participants for whom we have explicit signed parental consent to use their child's responses for this study. The data posted with Dryad are de-identified with no more than three indirect identifiers (grade level, sex, and the fact that they participated in the summer program at MSUM in one of the four sessions in the summer of 2023).