TIDES requires 36 credits of graduate training and culminates in a non-thesis, project-based Master of Science degree. Students combine coursework at UNH with field-based work at a NERRS site. In the process, they gain knowledge and skills related to integrative science that links coastal, estuarine, and watershed management; public participation in the generation of new knowledge and decision options; ecosystem-based and adaptive governance; and the facilitation of collaborative research group processes.
Coursework
Most students complete one year of coursework before beginning an internship. The applicant’s advising committee may require a heavier emphasis in certain types of courses, depending on his or her previous coursework. In general, TIDES students take courses from the following areas:
- Coastal/Estuarine Ecology
- Approach to Research
- Statistics/Data Analysis
- Communicating Coastal Issues
- Resource Management
- Policy and Governance
- Facilitating Public Participation
Tides Week
Each cohort of students begins the program with a full immersion experience week before fall semester classes.
During this week, students engage in both TIDES and UNH Graduate School formal orientations. Then they spend the remainder of the week getting to know each other, program faculty and learning about local NERRS sites in the region. Students travel to these sites and learn about the NERR and various issues of concern to their coastal communities.
They also visit the Parker River National Wildlife Preserve to learn about alternative approaches to managing coastal habitats and explore coastal development approaches along the Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Southern Maine Coastal areas and watersheds.
Finally they connect with staff of the Great Bay National Estuaries Program and visit Jackson Estuarine Research Laboratory where they are briefed by scientists and learn how they are connecting to the users of their research.
During the first Fall Term, each cohort of TIDES students participates in a collaborative learning course: Integrated Coastal Ecosystem Science Management and Policy (NR 916).
Internships
An internship at one of 28 Reserves around the country is at the heart of the TIDES experience. Each internship is linked to a NERRS Science Collaborative sponsored research project, designed to insure that investigators work with intended users before, during, and after the generation of knowledge.
TIDES interns help coordinate and facilitate collaborative ecosystem research within these projects. They provide input on how multi-stakeholder scientific discussions are structured and facilitated for maximum impact. They also may organize, implement, and evaluate interactions between researchers and intended users.
Most students complete one year of coursework before beginning their internships, which may be one or two semesters in duration, depending on the student’s background and available projects at the Reserves.
TIDES students are matched to projects that foster the integration of science, policy and management by engaging decision-makers and end user community stakeholders with research scientists and other NERR staff involved in design and implementation of a research project. Most interns serve these projects for six months, during the summer and fall terms after their first year, although the program is flexible to align with the targeted project.
Read about the TIDES students' Internship Program experiences at NERRs around the country.
