Ocean Sciences Quiz

The Ocean Sciences Quiz originated at and was developed by the MIT Sea Grant College Program, to promote ocean literacy and engage students, teachers, and teams worldwide. In 2011, the National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB) leadership team, from the Consortium for Ocean Leadership started working with MIT to further develop the game. A three-phase series of improvements will be rolled out over late 2011 to early 2013. The first phase (single-player) and second phase (two-player from the same computer) of the Ocean Sciences Quiz (OSQ) are now available to play!

Phase I focuses on the player against the clock. Its design and functionality are specific to helping individuals increase their knowledge of the ocean sciences. Individual players can identify and select specific subject area(s) to focus on, and can also pause or stop the game at any point to check progress and comprehension of the material by reviewing the end of game summary. In addition, participants also have the ability to submit their own questions into the game’s database to help expand the game’s breadth and depth.

Phase II allows two players to compete against each other using the same computer. Similar to Phase I but players compete against both the clock and against their “competitor” by buzzing in using the “Q” and “P” keys on a keyboard. In this phase, players are not only able to expand their ocean science knowledge, but they can practice their quick response skills for upcoming competitions. Other elements that will be part of Phase II include the ability to select question difficulty, and the opportunity to rate and flag submitted questions within the game.

Phase III, which will be data-tested in 2013, will be developed on a different platform allowing individuals and teams to play each other over the Internet.

Click here to play the OSQ!