The OOI Ocean Data Lab 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 Lab 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

Temperature profiles from 2 Pioneer Array Profilers, showing data from May 2019.

Data Labs Tutorial at WHOI

Today I had the opportunity to virtually present an introduction to the Ocean Data Labs project, along with a short tutorial on working with OOI Profiler data to the WHOI Ocean Informatics Working Group. We had over 40 participants attend, including…
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Waves Across the Pacific

We spend a lot of time talking about the wonders and potential of the Ocean Observatories Initiative during our Data Labs workshops.  After all, the OOI includes a large collection of standard and cutting-edge instruments that allow us to monitor…
Warming Stripes for the Globe and NJ
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Show Your Stripes

About a year ago, I ran across the cool new site for the #ShowYourStripes campaign. On the site, you can download a customized climate anomaly graph for any country or state.  Spoiler alert: they're all trending from blue towards…
Data Labs and RIOS virtual REU students hold signs saying We Love Research

June 2020 Community News

In this issue: Data Labs Summer Update Ready to Use Datasets for Educational Activities NSF Letter on Data Proposals Virtual OceanHackWeek 2020 Data Labs Summer Update It's been a while since our last note, but like all…
The Rutgers University Inn patio

Summer Weekend Reads

It's officially summer, and that means it's time for some summer weekend reading! Here are a few suggestions that popped up in my inbox and blog feed over the past few weeks.  The topics range from undergraduate research to ocean data, visualization…
A collage of 4 data nugget graphs.
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Data Nuggets – Ready to Use Datasets for Educational Activities

A new resource of curated OOI datasets is now available! Check out our new collection of OOI Data Nuggets! OOI Data Nuggets are exemplary datasets curated from data collected by the National Science Foundation’s Ocean Observatories…