Data Labs at ASLO 2025: Sharing Our Undergraduate Teaching Experiences

As March came to a close, several members of the OOI Data Labs community convened in Charlotte, North Carolina for the 2025 ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting. The meeting featured several education sessions on building an ocean and aquatic scientific workforce, along with scientific sessions. As part of the program, Data Labs team members hosted a session focused on the various uses of our Data Labs tools in undergraduate teaching and building a robust community committed to ocean data literacy. (You can find a full list of Data Labs related presentations and slides in our previous blog post.)

Anna Pfeiffer-Herbert (Stockton University) and Denise Bristol (Hillsborough Community College – SouthShore) hosted the session Building Data Literacy Skills in the Next Generation of Aquatic Sciences. Pfeiffer-Herbert reflected that this convening was an opportunity to “reinforce connections with Data Labs colleagues and meet new ones”. Within their session, presenters and audience members shared their experiences using real-world data in undergraduate courses.

Bristol commented on how working within the Data Labs community presented her with a unique opportunity. “I think it’s somewhat rare for a faculty from a community college to be able to chair a session at a scientific conference,” she mused. “And being part of the Data Labs has allowed me to do that.”

Data Labs community members meetup at ASLO 2025.

Bristol saw this conference as an opportunity to showcase Data Labs to new people, people who are looking for high-quality educational tools about ocean data literacy. She added, “the Data Labs community really fosters a sense of belonging and allows for collaborations across institutions that might not otherwise have the opportunity collaborate.”

Jean Anastasia (Suffolk County Community College) used this conference as an opportunity to share her newly developed OOI Data Labs activities, which she had focused on during her sabbatical. In her session, Creating an Undergraduate Oceanography Lab Exercise: From OOI Data Explorer to OOI Data Lab, she wanted other educators to “create their own data activities and be aware of all the amazing OOI Data Labs resources that are available for them to use.” She also left the conference with tips on how other educators bring ocean data literacy into their own classrooms.

Mikelle Nuwer (University of Washington) also found how impactful networking at ASLO can be. Outside of presenting in the education session (Enhancing Data Literacy in Undergraduate Oceanography: A Scaffolded Python Exercise for Exploring Primary Production Variability Using OOI Data), she connected with multiple attendees. She remarked on how attendees were willing “to share not only their expertise, but also practical advice on teaching methods and data integration, which I can directly apply in my own work.”

Attending this conference led to surprising insights she can take back to her own work, like the use of community-sourced environmental data in lessons to foster new avenues of learning for her students. “It’s always invigorating to learn about the innovative approaches my colleagues across the nation are implementing in their classrooms and to discover ideas I can adapt to engage my own students.”

While our Data Labs community members chaired sessions on data literacy in undergraduate education, that’s not all ASLO had to offer. ASLO convenes marine scientists across the country, sharing their reflections on the human decisions impacting our water systems.

Educators who participated in both the educational and research sessions of the conference saw that there are a lot of ways the latest research can be used as an opportunity to help build data literacy skills in their students. Anastasia was especially excited by this opportunity. She will be teaching a new Marine Ecology undergraduate course this fall and found plenty of new information at the conference she hopes to use in her new course. “While at the ASLO meetings, I attended many oral presentations on current marine ecological research such as the impacts of ocean acidification on coral reef ecosystems, the effects of global warming on polar ecosystems, and restoration efforts for seagrass and salt marsh communities,” she mentioned. She felt she left the conference with several great case studies that she could combine with OOI Data Labs chapters to create well-rounded lessons.

In the end, the meeting was a great opportunity for the community to share their experiences and learn about the latest scientific research. And these conversations won’t stop at ASLO. Anastasia, Bristol, Pfeiffer-Herbert and several other Data Labs community members will have an opportunity in May, during the 2025 Pilot Testing & Pedagogy Workshop to bring those new ideas into new activities. Here they will finalize new chapters of the Lab Manual, so be on the lookout!