ACCESSDATA: MAKING GEOSCIENCE DATA ACCESSIBLE AND USABLE BY THE EDUCATION COMMUNITY

Creating learning modules that utilize geoscience data is a difficult task, requiring knowledge about the data, science, curriculum design, and the educational context. The AccessData group has designed a program, which features a 2.5 day workshop, to facilitate the creation of effective data-rich educational modules. To date we have run four of these programs focused on a diverse range of datasets (http://serc.carleton.edu/usingdata/accessdata), and have partnered with research groups to run programs that focus on their data.

In preparation for the workshops, the AccessData group assembles teams of experts including data providers, tool specialists, scientists, curriculum developers, and educators. Each team focuses on specific geoscience datasets and analysis tools. Prior to and during the workshop each team is given a set of tasks that lead to developing an educational activity, time to work together as a group, and the services of a professional curriculum developer who completes the learning activity after the workshop. Work begun at the workshop culminates when the activity is published as a chapter in the Earth Exploration Toolbook (EET, http://serc.carleton.edu/eet).

Teams also work together to produce a set of educationally relevant metadata for the datasets represented on the team (DataSheets, http://serc.carleton.edu/usingdata/browse_sheets.html). These DataSheets enable educators, students, and other non-specialists to access the datasets and use them for learning.

In this presentation, we will describe the components of the AccessData workshop and accompanying activities that contribute to successful collaborations between the scientific and educational communities, and discuss how it could benefit your research project.