My “Follow ocean science and conservation experts on Bluesky and Instagram” assignment

As an informal learning assignment, I have my students use social media to follow ocean science and conservation experts for the semester. Each week, they’re asked to check social media for a few minutes, and report on something interesting they learned about marine science or conservation (and why they thought it was interesting.) I’m sharing that assignment here so that others can use or modify it, either for a class or for your own informal science education.

ASSIGNMENT BACKGROUND:

A great deal of science communication takes place online, where modern communication tools like social media and blogs make it easier than ever before in human history for experts to share their expertise with the public on a large scale. Lots of ocean science and conservation experts use these tools for a mix of public education, stakeholder outreach, and professional interactions. Observing this, and in some cases participating in it, can be wonderful for students’ professional development and education! Therefore, for this course, you will follow scientists and science communicators on social media for the semester, checking briefly (or more regularly) every week, and reporting on something interesting you learned.

Some accounts you follow will be from a list I provide, and some will be accounts you find yourself.
Each week, you’ll report something interesting about ocean science or conservation you learned on social media on Canvas, noting not only what was said, but who said it, why it caught your eye, and what you learned from it. We’ll also open class discussion each week with “what’s something interesting you learned on social media about ocean science or conservation this week, and why did you think it was interesting?”

For the last five years, I’ve had students, including non-major undergraduates, senior major undergraduates, and graduate students, do versions of this assignment, which I’ve published here. We used to use Twitter, we are not doing that anymore following the decline of Science Twitter. Instead, I’m now using Bluesky and Instagram. If you’d like, you may also use another service in addition to (not instead of) one or both of these two.

You may use an existing social media account if you want, or if you’d prefer you may create a new one just for this assignment . If for whatever reason (and I do not need to know the reason) you do not want a public social media account featuring your name, you may create an anonymous account (e.g., MarineBiologyStudent_Orca or Georgetown_Swordfish or NSU_CoralReefEnjoyer or something). You absolutely may NOT pretend to be a real person who you are not, that is against social media platform policies.

Please note: if for whatever reason (and I do not need to know the reason) you absolutely refuse to use social media, there is an alternative assignment, please contact me to receive it.

Please note: Scientists and conservationists are human beings and they talk about things other than the ocean, and A Lot is happening in the world right now. If someone says something distressing, just unfollow them, don’t argue with them. If you want to talk about it, talk about it with me, not with them.

Please note: You may ask the people you follow questions if you are genuinely interested in doing so, but you are not required to do so for this assignment. Please do not ask a question just to ask a question!

Each week, there will be a Canvas prompt for you to respond to, asking you to identify a post you saw on social media that you found interesting, and why you thought it was interesting.

BlueSky Accounts to follow

If you are using Bluesky for this assignment, you will be asked to follow at least 25 accounts from this list, and at least 10 accounts that you find on your own (some suggestions on how to find accounts are included below).

Here is a brief introduction to Bluesky, and here is how you sign up for an account if you don’t have one already.

Unlike on Instagram, if you are choosing to use Bluesky, I would recommend that you follow me because I share a lot of relevant content there, but it’s not required.

I have created a “starter pack,” a list of accounts that I think meet this course’s needs. Once you are logged into your account, please view my starter pack here. From here, examine the 50+ accounts I’ve highlighted and select at least 25 of them to follow.

To find other accounts, you can explore the marine science feed and see who is posting there. You can also search for keywords of interest (e.g., sea turtles, coral reefs, sustainable fisheries) and see who pops up. Additionally, there are lots of other great starter packs out there made by other Bluesky users. Ones that could be of interest here include: “Marine Biologists,” “Deep Sea Science,” “Coral Reef Science,” “Fisheries and Aquaculture,” “Zoos and Aquariums,” and “Marine Social Science,” or you can find your own on this list. Please note that these Starter Packs are all user-made with no quality control or fact-checking, which means they may contain people who don’t post very often and may contain people who post inaccurate information, so please explore carefully. I also made a Starter Pack of Shark Scientists.

Instagram Accounts to follow

Here’s how you make an instagram account if you do not have one already.

If you are using Instagram for this assignment, you will be asked to follow (at least) 15 accounts of your choice from the list below, and then add at least ten that you find on your own by searching hashtags or keywords of interest (like #MarineBiology or #SeaTurtles or #CoralReefs or whatever). The accounts on my provided list are a mix of scientists, conservationists, educators, government managers, and photographers and artists. It also includes institutional accounts like museums, aquariums, and government agencies. I suggest you briefly examine all of them when finding a mix that you like.

You can, but do not have to, follow me/your instructor here.

Here are my suggested Instagram accounts, with a link to each:

Oceana (@oceana) • Instagram photos and videos

Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum (@chesapeakemaritime) • Instagram photos and videos

Jaelen Myers (@stingray.savvy) • Instagram photos and videos

Emily De Sousa | Seafood, Travel, Sports (@seasidewithemily) • Instagram photos and videos

MSU Marine Fisheries Ecology (@msu_marinefisheriesecology) • Instagram photos and videos

Seafood Watch (@seafoodwatch) • Instagram photos and videos

Project Seagrass (@projectseagrass) • Instagram photos and videos

NOAA (@noaa) • Instagram photos and videos

National Aquarium (@nationalaquarium) • Instagram photos and videos

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (@fisheriesoceanscan) • Instagram photos and videos