Incorporating Alaska environmental data into undergraduate teaching modules
Dec. 7, 2021
A team of UAF biology faculty will form a network linking educators to providers of long-term, publicly available data on Alaska's changing environment. The effort is supported by a one-year “incubator” grant from the National Science Foundation called Alaska Data for Undergraduate Educational Modules.
Network participants will collaborate to develop online undergraduate teaching modules to teach data science, encourage inquiry, and help students explore the impact of climate change on Alaska's ecosystems. Ultimately the goals are to advance quantitative biology and foster interest in the implications of rapid climate change in the North for ecology, evolution, and biodiversity through the use of publicly available data.
Anyone interested in participating in the network, from anywhere in Alaska or across the nation, is encouraged to and learn about the first workshop, to be held Jan. 21-22, 2022, by Zoom.
Through targeted teaching modules and facilitated access to publicly available data, the team hopes to:
- Increase engagement and retention by empowering undergraduates to use online sources of biological data science for coursework and mentored research
- Improve equity in access to inquiry-based learning and research by increasing opportunities for students and faculty to engage remotely with important sources of data about our state
- Prepare a diverse workforce with quantitative and data management skills
- Encourage students to apply objective, data-centered reasoning to real-world problems
- Train students to use basic tools of data science to investigate patterns and implications of environmental change, thereby supporting sound ecological policy and decision-making within Alaska communities
For more information, contact Diane Wagner at dwagner10@alaska.edu; Steffi Ickert-Bond at smickertbond@alaska.edu; Anja Kade at ankade@alaska.edu; Denise Kind at dmkind@alaska.edu; or Jay Jones at jbjonesjr@alaska.edu.