Scientists from the U.S. and South America are workshopping at Texas A&M University at Galveston (TAMUG) this week to expand sandy beach research and broaden collegiate learning opportunities. The Tides of Opportunity Project, co-led by the Smithsonian’s Marine Global Earth Observatory (MarineGEO) Program, TAMUG, the Smithsonian Marine Station, the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, and the University of Miami, is a collaborative monitoring project with marine science professors and their students. Tuesday, Aug. 18, through Friday, Aug. 21, 15 professors and marine science professionals from the United States, Brazil, Peru, and Urugay will co-design a sandy beaches monitoring protocol and associated course modules and test the protocol in the field. The goal is to incorporate sandy beach monitoring protocols into marine science courses, which college faculty and students can use to achieve learning goals while providing essential data can help researchers diagnose the health of an understudied critical coastal habitat. Dr. Guilherme Corte, an assistant professor of marine biology in the College of Marine Sciences and Maritime Studies at TAMUG, is a principal investigator for MarineGEO. “One third of the world’s ice-free coastlines are made of sandy beaches, and they go from pole to pole,” Corte said. However,...