Data Explorations

OOI Data Explorations

Looking for ways to connect your undergraduates in introductory courses with authentic data from the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI)?

What are Data Explorations?

OOI Data Explorations are a collection of free online educational modules, featuring interactive data visualizations that incorporate cutting-edge research datasets available from the OOI.

Each Data Exploration was developed by a group of undergraduate faculty, and is designed to engage students in explorations using real-word datasets, selected to augment concepts that are commonly taught in introductory oceanography courses. You can easily integrate these data activities into your courses, ideally as in-class group activities as part of an active-learning strategy. The Explorations are designed to be modular, some feature a single activity that may take 15-30 minutes and can be incorporated into the rest of your lesson. Others have multiple activities that can be sequenced together for a deeper dive into the concepts and datasets.

An Instructor Guide for each exploration is also available, detailing how each activity can be used to help support students’ engagement, data skills, and conceptual understanding, guided by the Learning Cycle (from the Lawrence Hall of Science).

Data Explorations – Community Collection (2020)

In 2020 we launched a new series of Data Explorations, developed by faculty during a series of professional development workshops we hosted in 2019.

• March: Anoxic Events – Explore the impact and interaction between the mid-depth ocean and coastal waters on fisheries
• March: Changes in Salinity – Explore processes that might affect sea surface salinity
• June: Chlorophyll-a in Upwelling and Stratified Temperate Regions – Explore seawater characteristics that are correlated with changes in primary productivity, particularly during the summer in the North Pacific vs. the North Atlantic
• June: Dynamic Air-Sea Interactions – Explore dynamic air-sea interactions from an interesting event
• June: Thermohaline Circulation – Explore the Thermohaline Circulation (conveyor belt) and NADW Formation in the Irminger Sea
• July: CO₂ Exchange Between Air and Sea
• July: Factors affecting Primary Production
• July: Magma Movement and the Shape of the Seafloor
• July: Plate Tectonics and the Seafloor
• August: Drivers of Seawater Density
• August: Seasonal Variability In The Mixed Layer
• August: Impacts of Ocean Acidification on Shellfish in the Pacific Northwest
• Other: Chlorophyll-a and Nitrate
• March (prototype): Ecosystem Vertical Structure
• March (prototype): Profiles of DO and Chlorophyll-a in the Open Ocean

Original Data Explorations (2016-2017)

The following Data Exploration collections were developed in 2016 and 2017 as part of two pilot projects.

• Exploring Primary Production with OOI Data
  • Primary Production in General – Think and reflect on your knowledge about primary production
  • Primary Production Variables – Explore different kinds of variables that are collected to measure primary production
  • Chlorophyll-a Across the Year – Explore chlorophyll-a concentrations throughout a year
  • Chlorophyll-a Across the Globe – Explore chlorophyll-a concentrations throughout the globe
  • Chlorophyll-a in Temperate Zones of the Ocean – Explore chlorophyll-a concentration data from temperate zones of the ocean
  • Chlorophyll-a Near the Polar Zones of the Ocean – Explore chlorophyll-a concentration data from locations near the polar zones of the ocean
  • Chlorophyll-a Inshore vs. Offshore – Explore chlorophyll-a concentrations from inshore and offshore locations
• Exploring Properties of Seawater with OOI Data
  • Seasonal Variation of Surface Salinity – Explore and analyze patterns in how surface salinity changes over time.
  • Processes that Change Salinity – Explore seawater characteristics of processes that are correlated with changes in salinity over time.
  • Changes in pH with Depth – Explore and analyze patterns in how seawater pH changes with depth.
  • Changes in pH and pCO2 – Explore and analyze patterns in seawater pH and pCO2 over time.
  • Changes in Salinity with Depth – Explore and analyze patterns in how salinity changes with depth over time.
  • Halocline – Explore and analyze patterns in the location of the halocline over time.
• Exploring Tectonics & Seamounts with OOI Data
  • Plate Boundary Features – Help students understand features of transform and divergent plate boundaries by working with earthquake data along the intersection of the Pacific and Juan de Fuca plates.
  • Geologic Features of a Seamount – Help students understand how seamounts are actively changing at mid-ocean ridges by working with seafloor and oceanic data at the Axial Seamount, North Pacific Ocean.
  • Seamount Diking-Eruption Event Science – Help students understand how scientists use data and knowledge of processes at mid-ocean ridges to make predictions of future seismic and eruption events at the Axial Seamount, North Pacific Ocean.
  • Seismic Features at a Seamount – Help students understand features of seamounts by working with earthquake data at the Axial Seamount, North Pacific Ocean.
  • Vent Video Frames – Help students understand how hydrothermal vents evolve using a timeseries of snapshots from an HD Camera at Axial Seamount.

EPE Data Investigations (2014)

During the early days of the OOI, a small team of educators at Rutgers developed several prototype data investigation activities to support the OOI’s early Education and Public Engagement (EPE) effort.  Our goal at the time, was to figure out a useful way to structure data-focused activities that would allow students piece together several datasets (i.e. pieces of “evidence”) to answer an overarching challenge question.  The template was designed to be flexible in the kinds of datasets it supported, but structured in such a way that educators could easily build or adapt their own data investigations using OOI data.

• The Spatial Response from Hurricane Sandy
• Ocean-Atmosphere Interaction During Storms
• Ocean Acidification
• Is Overfishing Creating a Population Bottleneck?
• Seasonality in the Ocean
• Questioning Ocean Productivity and Temperature

If you have any question about these Data Explorations, please contact us.