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OceTHE OFFICIALa MAGAZINEn ogOF THE OCEANOGRAPHYra SOCIETYphy CITATION McDonnell, J., A. deCharon, C.S. Lichtenwalner, K. Hunter-Thomson, C. Halversen, O. Schofield, S. Glenn, C. Ferraro, C. Lauter, and J. Hewlett. 2018. Education and public engagement in OOI: Lessons learned from the field. Oceanography 31(1):138–146, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2018.122. DOI https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2018.122 COPYRIGHT This article has been published in Oceanography, Volume 31, Number 1, a quarterly journal of The Oceanography Society. Copyright 2018 by The Oceanography Society. All rights reserved. USAGE Permission is granted to copy this article for use in teaching and research. Republication, systematic reproduction, or collective redistribution of any portion of this article by photocopy machine, reposting, or other means is permitted only with the approval of The Oceanography Society. Send all correspondence to: [email protected] or The Oceanography Society, PO Box 1931, Rockville, MD 20849-1931, USA. DOWNLOADED FROM HTTP://TOS.ORG/OCEANOGRAPHY SPECIAL ISSUE ON THE OCEAN OBSERVATORIES INITIATIVE Education and Public Engagement in OOI Lessons Learned from the Field By Janice McDonnell, Annette deCharon, C. Sage Lichtenwalner, Kristin Hunter-Thomson, Catherine Halversen, Oscar Schofield, Scott Glenn, Carrie Ferraro, Carla Lauter, and James Hewlett 138 Oceanography | Vol.31, No.1 To build the most user-friendly way for professors and researchers to access OOI data for undergraduate teaching, EPE created“ a suite of effective tools through an iterative development cycle. By Janice McDonnell, Annette deCharon, C. Sage Lichtenwalner, Kristin Hunter-Thomson, Catherine Halversen, Oscar Schofield, Scott Glenn, Carrie Ferraro, Carla Lauter, and James Hewlett ” ABSTRACT. The Ocean Observing Initiative (OOI) was designed to advance manipulating data, learners are chal- understanding of complex oceanographic processes by acquiring large quantities of lenged to construct meaning and develop data at six key locations in the world ocean. The OOI Education and Public Engagement a deeper understanding of a topic or (EPE) Implementing Organization has built an educational cyberinfrastructure and phenomenon. This type of learning also developed interactive tools targeted for undergraduate-level learners that enable easy encourages student inquiry and helps access to OOI data, images, and video. To develop the suite of OOI education tools, develop practical science skills (Hays EPE used an iterative design process, including needs assessment, tool prototyping, and et al., 2000; Adams and Matsumoto, usability testing in undergraduate classrooms. Data visualization and concept mapping 2009). Working with real data helps stu- tools were envisioned as a way to help undergraduates link concepts students see in dents develop interest in, motivation oceanography textbooks to real-world phenomena. A Data Investigation Builder (DIB) for, and identity with respect to sci- was constructed to assist professors in designing data activities. During the usability ence (National Science Board, 2007). testing, professors provided valuable feedback that allowed EPE to improve the tools. Moreover, analyzing data and identifying Based on the lessons learned from EPE, in 2016 we developed a new prototype set of patterns have become core skills in the Data Explorations that were more modular and easier to integrate into an undergraduate workplace and for civic engagement in lecture or problem set. This paper reviews how the EPE toolset was developed, including the twenty-first century (Oceans of Data establishment of requirements for the tools and incorporation of lessons learned from Institute, 2015). the user needs assessment and the results of usability testing of prototype tools. Despite the benefits and opportunities of having students work with real INTRODUCTION and plate-scale geodynamics for the com- data, undergraduate teaching is often not A growing number of geoscience research ing decades. The OOI is already advanc- data intensive (Krumhansel et al., 2013). programs collect high volumes of data ing our ability to understand the natu- Limited experience and exposure to dif- using advanced technologies, espe- ral world by acquiring large quantities of ferent data types and sources can cause cially in oceanography. One such pro- data to address complex oceanographic students to struggle in their courses, and gram is the National Science Foundation processes at six locations of interest they may purposefully avoid the use and (NSF) Ocean Observatories Initiative in the world ocean. evaluation of data in their everyday lives. (OOI), which has constructed obser- Expanded access to online data pro- Cognitive studies reveal that students vational and computational infrastruc- vides geoscience professors with myriad who are not regularly exposed to data ture to provide sustained ocean measure- opportunities to engage undergrad- manipulation often fail to see patterns ments for the study of climate variability, uate learners through the use of real- emerging across scientific experiments, ocean circulation, ecosystem dynam- world data sets, models, and simulations frequently ignoring anomalous data or ics, air-sea exchange, seafloor processes, of oceanographic processes. By directly distorting them to match their personal beliefs (Chinn and Brewer, 1998). Studies FACING PAGE. From left to right: Cheryl Greengrove (University of Washington Tacoma), Deborah also indicate that students need to learn Kelley (University of Washington Seattle), Alan Trujillo (Palomar College), and Rus Higley (Highline College) explore teaching with data at the Rutgers University Inn and Conference Center, more about the types of conclusions that New Brunswick, NJ. scientists can draw from observations, Oceanography | March 2018 139 what kinds of evidence are needed to However, the transition from using data Education and Public Engagement (EPE) support scientific ideas, and how that evi- they collected to using professionally col- Implementing Organization worked to dence can be gathered and interpreted lected data can be very challenging for build an educational cyberinfrastructure (Sampson and Clark, 2008). students. They need to shift from using and develop interactive tools to enable To support data literacy and enhance familiar to unfamiliar analysis tools, from easy access to OOI data, images, and critical thinking skills, undergraduates hands-on experiences to gaining context video in formal learning environments. need to transition from working with from metadata, and from simple to com- Toward this end, we explored methodol- small, typically self-collected data sets plex lines of reasoning (Kastens, 2011). ogies for effectively integrating data into to large, professionally collected data Supporting students while they transition learning strategies and creating data visu- sets (Kastens, 2011) such as those pro- to using professionally collected data can alization tools to teach twenty-first cen- vided by the OOI. Student-collected data be challenging for professors too, as there tury science skills and practices in under- can spur discussion of “data ownership” is often a lack of adequate tools to help graduate classrooms. To build the most (i.e., provenance) and how data provide students in the classroom easily digest user-friendly way for professors and evidence for claims, interpretations, and and manipulate large data sets. researchers to access OOI data for under- conclusions (Hug and McNeill, 2008). With these challenges in mind, the OOI graduate teaching, EPE created a suite of effective tools through an iterative development cycle. This paper reviews how A Brief History of Education the EPE toolset was developed, including how the requirements for the tools were and Public Engagement in OOI established, and how we folded in lessons learned from the user needs assessment and results from the usability testing of the prototype tools. Our experiences will help future developers interested in learning about effective processes for building their own educational tools and content. HISTORY OF EDUCATION AND PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT IN OOI Education and public awareness was a crucial component of the early Ocean Research Interactive Observation Net- works (ORION) program (Matsumoto et al., 2006) that eventually evolved into the OOI program. From 2002 to 2010, there was a national focus on ocean science education, espe- cially through the NSF-funded Centers for Ocean Science Education Excellence (COSEE), NOAA’s Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS; Simoniello et al., 2010; Pfirman et al., 2011), and the EPE Implementing Organization for OOI (Figure 1). Early OOI strategic planning called for a central coordination office, as well as collaboration with a national network of observatory educators who would wel- come sustained partnerships with scientists and engineers (Matsumoto et al., 2006). Educators and scientists articu- FIGURE 1. The progression of thinking about using data in teaching and learning. lated the need for a data management 140 Oceanography | Vol.31, No.1 and information translation facility assessment results showed professors conceptual understanding. that would be tasked with transform- were interested in using data sets to con- These professors also recommended ing OOI research results, technology nect important themes and concepts in that EPE develop tools for creating basic innovations, and data into ready-to- introductory oceanography courses. They statistics

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