This adaptation consists of three exercises that introduce students to 1) format spreadsheet data tables, 2) carry out spreadsheet quality control, and 3) count/sort/filter data of interest in order to conduct a pilot analysis on NEON small mammal data.

Students use small mammal data from the National Ecological Observatory Network to understand necessary steps of data management from data collection to data analysis by estimating small mammal population sizes using the Lincoln-Peterson model.

This multi-part activity allows students to discover the relationships between CO2 and temperature and how these variables have changed over time using real-world data.