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.

  • Attendees at our 2019 workshop in Bellingham, WA.
  • Participants at our workshop during the 2019 Earth Educators Rendezvous in Nashville.
  • OSM20 Data Lab Workshop table group
  • Data Lab workshop participants at Western Washington University.
  • Sage chats with several Ocean Sciences workshop participants.
  • Participants at our 2020 Ocean Sciences Data Labs workshop.
  • A table of participants at our Ocean Sciences Workshop hard at work checking out some new Data Explorations.
  • July workshop participants use a bright window to compare multiple graphs on top of each other
  • Participants from our July OOI Data Lab Development Workshop
  • Participants from our June OOI Data Lab Development Workshop
  • The March 2019 OOI Data Labs workshop featured 20 participants and staff from around the country.
  • Wilmington workshop participants gather on the dock at UNCW for a photo.
  • Workshop participants on the trolly on their way to the first night of presentations.
  • Participants discuss how best to interpret a graph as part of a nonsense data activity.
  • Dr. Beaulieu presenting on the OOI Data Explorer to workshop participants. She is standing and actively talking while the participants are sat in front of her and following along.
  • Four participants gathering around a table, looking at a laminated piece of paper and discussing its contents.
  • Six adults standing side-by-side, smiling at the camera, outside on a sunny day, shaded by a vibrant tree.
  • Workshop participants gather in front of a fall tree at the Chauncey Center
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Recent Blog Posts

1 week change in Sea Surface Temperature from July 12 to 19, 2013
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The End of Upwelling

What a difference a week makes. Late last week, the waters off New Jersey were between 5-15 degrees below normal. They're not any more.
A sea surface temperature satellite image map, alongside a NDBC buoy on the water

Satellites vs. Buoys

A little while back, I received the following question from a Visual Ocean visitor: "When might satellite sst data be more informative than buoy data?"
Red, white and blue map of SST Gradients in the Mid Atlantic on July 4, 2013
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The Ocean in Red, White and Blue

To celebrate Independence Day, I thought it would be fun to dress up the ocean in a little red, white and blue.
False-color image from NOAA-18 at 4:36pm on June 7, 2013
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Tropical Storm Andrea clouds up the ocean

This week, was the start of the 2013 Hurricane Season, and already forecasters have declared the first storm of the season, Tropical Storm Andrea.
NGSS Middle School performance expectations for Weather and Climate - page 58
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Next Generation Activity Development

Last week, I had an opportunity to look through the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) alongside many other ocean educators at the COSEE Network Meeting. Our goal was to figure out how the NGSS could be used to develop activities.
NGSS Middle School performance expectations for Weather and Climate - page 58

Blog Roundup #1 – Ocean Science and More

I hope to occasionally share some of my favorite web sites and blogs in easily digestible chunks. This first roundup features some of the top sites on ocean, climate and environmental data and science.

 The Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) Data Labs is pleased to be a (non-funded) sponsored program of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT).

NAGT sponsors programs that foster improvements in the teaching and learning about Earth as a system at all levels of formal and informal instruction, emphasize the relevance and cultural significance of geoscience to all people, foster and disseminate knowledge of and research in geoscience education, and promote professional growth of our members. the Data Labs project  fully aligns with NAGT’s mission as it works to promote data literacy skills building in undergraduate education using the lens of the geoscience disciplines.