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Incorporating Data Analysis into Undergraduate Courses

Learn how to incorporate diverse and engaging data sets into undergraduate and graduate geoscience courses, promoting active learning and practicing scientific skills. Discover online resources, hands-on data, and fieldwork possibilities to enhance student understanding of complex geoscience concepts.

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Incorporating Data Analysis into Undergraduate Courses

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  1. Preparing for an Academic Career in Geosciences Workshop: Summer 2010 Incorporating Data Analysis into Undergraduate Courses • Jeff Marshall, Cal Poly Pomona • Rachel O’Brien, Allegheny College

  2. Data sets are flexible • Data and assignments can be tailored to reach a broad range of student groups K-12 Graduate courses • Can be used in one class/lab session or throughout an entire course

  3. Data sets are cost-effective • Majority of online sources are now free • Simple, low-cost field and lab work Data sets are concept-effective • Allow for compare/contrast work at a range of spatial & temporal scales • Single or multi-concept patterns

  4. Data sets are engaging • Allow students the opportunity to practice science and promote active learning Data sets are real • Require students to grapple with issues of complexity, uncertainty, and outliers

  5. Ocean Circulation Profiles Classic textbook Pacific high latitude Atlantic low latitude http://www.epic.noaa.gov/epic/ewb/

  6. Data sets are diverse in topic , scope, and format • Online datasets • Teach particular concepts and/or skills • Recreate research, test hypotheses • Hands-on data • Field work and/or lab work in your course • A genuine research experiment • Published literature • Journal articles, government documents, NGO reports

  7. A great place to start http://serc.carleton.edu/usingdata/

  8. Data sets are not stand alone resources • Design how you’ll use data • Identify clear learning outcomes Content and/or concepts Skills • What steps in the process are most important? (collection and reduction, analysis, reporting) • How will you address uncertainty, outliers, etc.?

  9. Data sets are not foolproof • Logistics • Work through all steps of the process ahead of time • Envision and create “Plan B” • Evaluation Did the use of data help student learning? How will you know?

  10. Case study: Freshman seminar • First-year seminar: Water and the Earth • H20 & N budgets: increasing spatial scale; increasing complexity • Hands-on and online data sources used

  11. What is a watershed?Local watershed (10-1 km2)

  12. What is a watershed?

  13. What happens to water and N budgets when a forest is clear cut?NE watershed (10km2)

  14. What happens to water and N budgets when a forest is clear cut?

  15. What is causing the “Dead Zone” in the Gulf of Mexico?Mississippi River watershed (106 km2)

  16. What is causing the “Dead Zone” in the Gulf of Mexico?

  17. Incorporating Data Analysis into Undergraduate Geoscience Courses A Few Good Web Sites with Real Time Earth Science Data Jeff Marshall Cal Poly Pomona

  18. Geodetic Data UNAVCO EarthScope Plate Boundary Observatory http://www.unavco.org/unavco.html

  19. Earthquake Data USGS Earthquake Hazards Program & SCEC So. California Earthquake Center http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ http://www.scec.org/

  20. Hydrologic Data USGS Water Resources Division http://water.usgs.gov/

  21. Satellite Imagery NASA Earth Observatory http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov

  22. Earth, Ocean, & Climate Data NASA Eyes on the Earth 3D http://climate.nasa.gov/Eyes/

  23. Exploration activity • Choose a course: Introductory level • or advanced course (grad or ugrad) • Identify a website with datasets that could be used in the course • What topic(s) and/or skill(s) can students explore with the data?

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