EDSIN: Environmental Data Science Inclusion Network

The curriculum module “Spiders under the Influence” was created by by Chris Hawn and Aaron Curry and is published as part of the Data Nuggets project.

Introduction: People use pharmaceutical drugs, personal care products, and other chemicals on a daily basis. For example, we take medicine when we are sick to feel better, and use perfumes and cologne to make ourselves smell good. After we use these chemicals, where do they go? Often, they get washed down our drains and end up in local waterways. Even our trash can contain these harmful chemicals. For example, when coffee grounds are thrown into the trash, caffeine gets washed into our waterways.

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The curriculum module “Phenology Trends and Climate Change in Minnesota” was developed by Pamela Freeman and is published as part of Project Eddie.

Summary: Seasonal events, for example flowering, fruiting, and the return of migrating birds, happen at particular times of the year. Some of these events happen in relation to climate, while others are dependent on other factors. Phenology is the study of these repeating events in the lifecycle of organisms. As the climate changes, the timing of some events may change in some species. This exercise will help students evaluate how climate change has already affected species in Minnesota.

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The curriculum module “Graphing and Mapping Patterns of Air Quality in Los Angeles, California Through an Environmental Justice Lens” was developed by Dr. Adriane Clark Jones as part of the Social Justice and Community Change Faculty Mentoring Network.

Description: This is a three-part student activity that could be done in lecture or lab. Part 1 assigns a series of current popular press articles to read and a series of discussion questions. Students read and complete this section before the in-class activity. Part 2 takes place in class, students will be introduced to ESRI ArcGIS online and guided through a mapping activity using Living Atlas Layers. The students answer questions about their map. Part 3 is assigned as homework students select two Real-Time EPA AirNow Air Quality Monitoring Sites and download a year of data for the two locations from https://www.epa.gov/outdoor-air-quality-data/download-daily-data. The students will use Microsoft Excel to plot the data from each location and then use the graphs to answer questions.

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The curriculum module “Quantifying the Drivers and Impacts of Natural Disturbance Events - the 2013 Colorado

Floods” was created by Dr. Leah Wasser and Dr. Megan A. Jones as part of the National Ecological Observatory Network.

Description: This lesson focuses on ways that scientists identify and use data to understand ecological disturbance events using data from five public datasets. The main lesson focused on interpretation of figures, while optional coding extensions teach R skills.

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The curriculum module “Implementing Demography from Cemetery Module” was created by Dr. Alexis Racelis and is built on the TIEE publication:  Cemetery Module.

Abtract: This lab provides a rich and flexible version of widely-used demography exercises that have been previously based on data collected from cemeteries.  This lab teaches life tables and survivorship curves.  Over two lab periods, small student groups develop and answer questions comparing the survival patterns of different groups of humans (e.g., groups that differ in  time period, gender, ethnicity, etc.).  Data on human demography can be gathered from tombstones in local cemeteries that provide ages at death.  Students may also compare survivorship curves on the same groups generated by different data sets.

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The curriculum module “Sustainability Metrics” was created by Dr. Natalie Hunt and is published as part of Project Eddie. 

Summary: Sustainability is a complex term applied to many different contexts in a variety of ways. As a result, it can be challenging to determine how sustainable something really is. In this module, students will use an analytical framework with publicly available data to formulate questions, analyze data, and report metrics of sustainability.

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