Data Labs at the 2024 OOIFB Community Workshop

Data Labs community members gathered with other educators, scientists, stakeholders, and NSF OOI team members to brainstorm new ways to use Mid Atlantic NSF OOI data in the classroom. 

This past fall, the NSF OOI Facilities Board (OOIFB) hosted a workshop to bring together scientists, educators, and NSF OOI operators to learn about the new Mid Atlantic Bight (MAB) Pioneer Array, which was recently deployed off the coast of North Carolina. At the workshop, attendees discussed how NSF OOI data can support scientific research and the development of new educational activities to support undergraduate and graduate education. 

Attendees included OOI Data Labs Co-PIs Sage Lichtenwalner, a research programmer at Rutgers University, and Anna Pfeiffer-Herbert, a professor at Stockton University, who presented a plenary talk on the Data Labs project and the collection of activities the community has developed over the past few years. They also highlighted the opportunity the new Pioneer MAB Array has for inspiring new data literacy-focused activities, including the ideas developed by attendees at an earlier workshop in Wilmington, North Carolina. Lichtenwalner and Pfeiffer-Herbert outlined the challenges of connecting students to OOI data, including the required time needed to introduce students to new datasets and the necessary expertise to curate the right amount of data to scaffold students’ learning while also challenging them to analyze data critically. 

Data Lab Community Members take a minute out of the busy schedule to take a picture together. (From left to right: Anna Pfeiffer-Herbert, Jean Anastasia, Sage Lichtenwalner, Dax Soule, Jacqui Degan, and Denise Bristol)

Jacqui Degan, a Cape Fear Community College professor and a long-time Data Labs contributor and Lab Manual author, also attended. For her, this community workshop was an opportunity to connect with researchers with similar research interests. “I’m a fisheries person, and there were people talking about using OOI data to help with fisheries research.” Degan loves connecting her students to current research, especially as it connects to new data.  

This was echoed by Jean Anastasia from Suffolk County Community College, another veteran Data Labs community member present at the workshop. Anastasia, also a Data Labs manual author, reflected that going into the workshop, she feared the topics would go over her head. “But it was a very welcoming atmosphere,” she recalled. “I learned a great deal about the science questions that can be investigated using data from the new location of the OOI Pioneer array and plan to bring some of this into my classroom.” 

Lab Manual co-editor and another project Co-PI Denise Bristol from Hillsborough Community College shared details on the Data Lab Manual during the poster session. “I was very fortunate as a 2YC faculty to be able to attend the OOIFB community workshop. The update on previous research near the Pioneer MAB provided a great orientation and insight to the region.”   

Workshop attendees shared results from earlier studies in the MAB, as well as new research questions the relocated array can address. Bristol noted, “The orientation, along with future research brainstorming sessions, gave me a lot of ideas on how I can incorporate that information into my undergraduate oceanography classes and future Data Lab activities.”  

As the Data Labs community works on developing new activities, we hope educators become more comfortable using NSF OOI data and sharing ideas. Several team members are creating new Python-based lessons and resources for undergraduate and graduate students. These resources will assist faculty in preparing students with the skills they need to succeed in future careers.  

As Degan noted, “My students are eligible for so many jobs now if they have coding experience. They don’t have to be proficient, but they can engage with it. Even if they aren’t a “coder,” they aren’t frozen at the mention of code.” 

Expanding the Data Labs collection of resources to support workforce readiness is more important now than ever. And thanks to the ideas and collaborations shared at the community workshop, we hope the community will be able to take advantage of the new Pioneer MAB Array to create the next generation of activities to support students’ data and coding literacy development.