Participating students in the Faculty/Graduate Student Collaborative at the Darling Marine Center consisted of seventeen graduate and post-doctoral students (see sidebar at left) who worked with five ocean science researchers from several institutions. Workshop groups (in a 3:1 student to faculty ratio) collaborated to develop concept maps using targeted focus questions based on ocean and climate literacy fundamental concepts.

Through an iterative process involving web-based concept mapping and multimedia tools developed by COSEE-OS, the teams created "consensus" concept maps based on the researchers' initial focus questions and presented them to their peers for feedback. Next, the graduate students were tasked with presenting to a completely different audience - 15 high school students from Waterville Senior High School in Waterville, ME - to challenge them to apply their presentation skills to non-scientist audiences. This "third party" audience provided valuable insight for the presenters, as well as helping the researchers to see how their original messages were translated to an intended audience.