We offer a diverse, interdisciplinary scientific programme that comprises excursions, sampling, analytical lab work, and lectures The focus is on the southern North Sea coast and the inverstigation of coastal water column.s The main items are:

• Introductory lecture on the coastal area of the southern North Sea and on Wadden Sea research
• Introduction lecture to ICBM, the German higher education system, and setting for marine sciences in Northwest Germany
• Excursion on history of the southern North Sea coast since the last glaciation (Quaternary geology, landscape development and settling history) including a "mud walk" over tidal flats in the Jade Bay
• Sampling of sea surface micro-layers
• Sampling of water column from research boats
• Acquisition of hydrodynamic data
• Excursion to Wadden Sea and time series station near Spiekeroog
• Basic lectures on the scientific background of the summer school topics
• Lectures on special research topics e.g. on dissolved organic matter and operational oceanography and the ICBM time series station.
• Lab work on molecular microbiology, chemistry of surface micro-layers, plankton, and nutrients
• Introduction to advanced analyses techniques: nutrient analyses, trace metal and isotope analyses using multi-collector ICP-MS, proteomics (MALDI-TOF and HPLC-ESI-MS-MS techniques), flow cytometry and molecular microbiology methods
• Introduction to numerical modelling of hydrodynamics (with lab)
• Data compilation and synopsis with presentations by the participants

This programme is partly preliminary and may be subject to some changes.