DATA MANAGEMENT BEST PRACTICES FOR EDUCATION-BASED FUNDING: FINDING OUTLETS FOR BOTH ASSESSMENT AND RESEARCH DATA GENERATED BY THE STUDENTS

Data management – in light of greater Federal oversight regarding public access to scientific data and publications generated by funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) – is critical while considering best practices of NSF funded projects. Education-based interventions generated by studies have numerous outlets for public access. Research data, generated by the participants of an education funded research intervention, is often overlooked by education-based studies. Our study provides students with course-based undergraduate research experiences (CURES) through remote use of electron microscopes located at the Florida Center for Analytical Electron Microscopy. Research experiences as part of an undergraduate education have numerous benefits (e.g., retention in STEM, improved learning, & modernized workforce training). However, many schools do not have the resources to provide students access to research instrumentation. Remote access removes the barrier of access and allows the benefits to any school. This study has generated several teaching activities utilizing the electron microscopes as part of this study. We have utilized the Teaching Activities from the Science Education Resource Center (SERC) for dissemination and archiving of these activities. SERC has been the outlet for numerous interventions generated by federal funding. Students have generated mineral geochemical data as a result of our CURES. Most of this data has been presented by students at referred conferences. This mineral geochemical data has great value to traditional geology researchers. In order to provide access to this data, as well as archive it, we have begun submitting student generated mineral geochemical data to the EarthChem Portal. EarthChem allows for researchers to search data from multiple data systems at once. EarthChem also links data submissions to the 7 digit NSF award numbers, however, this currently does not include awards from the Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE).