The OOI Ocean Data Labs Project

The National Science Foundation’s Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) is advancing our ability to understand the natural world by collecting large quantities of data to address complex oceanographic processes. This expanded access to data also provides professors in the geosciences with new opportunities to engage undergraduate students in authentic data experiences using real-world data sets to teach geoscience processes.

However, students struggle to work with data based on their limited experience and exposure to different data types and sources. Also, supporting students in engaging with the data can be challenging for professors too, as there is a lack of adequate tools to easily digest and manipulate large data sets for in-class learning experiences.

Therefore, the OOI Ocean Data Labs Project (formerly called Data Explorations), with funding from NSF, is developing, testing, refining, and disseminating easy to use, interactive Data Explorations and Data Lab Notebooks that will allow undergraduates to use authentic data in accessible ways while being easy for professors to integrate into their teaching.


Recent Blog Posts

Undergraduates Discover New Ways of Exploring the Ocean… With Data

Silke Severmann, associate professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, teaches the introductory course in oceanography at Rutgers. Her role in this first-year seminar is to introduce students to the application of technologies…
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Using OOI Data to Teach Data Analysis and Scientific Computing Skills in Upper-Level Courses

Data Labs in the Classroom: Teaching Tips from the Community Dr. Hilary Palevsky, OOI Data Lab Fellow 2020   I am a faculty member in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Boston College. My research is in marine biogeochemistry,…
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Facilitating Student Analysis of Real Data by Creating a Flexible Python Notebook

Data Labs in the Classroom: Teaching Tips from the Community Dr. Tracy Quan, OOI Data Lab Fellow 2020 I am an Associate Professor in the Boone Pickens School of Geology (BPSoG) at Oklahoma State University. My current research focuses on…
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Using Python Notebooks to Build Students’ Skills, Confidence and Knowledge

Data Labs in the Classroom: Teaching Tips from the Community Dr. Sean Crosby, OOI Data Lab Fellow 2020   I am an adjunct at Western Washington University (WWU), and a coastal oceanographer for the U. S. Geological Survey. I work with…
ADCP data from the Oregon inshore mooring of the OOI Endurance Array.
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Teaching Concepts in Data Analysis with Live Coding

Data Labs in the Classroom: Teaching Tips from the Community Dr. Tom Connolly, OOI Data Lab Fellow 2020 I am a faculty member at San José State University and I teach at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML). I am a physical oceanographer,…
screenshot of data interactive from Plate Boundary Features exploration
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Enhancing Lectures with Interactive Data Explorations

Data Labs in the Classroom: Teaching Tips from the Community Dr. Meg Blome, OOI Data Lab Fellow 2020 Hello! My name is Meg Blome and I am a faculty member in the Geological Sciences Department at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC.…