A New Phenology-focused CURE using Herbarium Specimen Data
Author(s): Katie Pearson1, Natalie Love2, Tadeo Parada2, Jenn Yost
1. Cal Poly State University 2. UC Santa Barbara
654 total view(s), 81 download(s)
Description
As thousands of new herbarium specimen images are generated by the California Phenology (CAP) Network, the potential for studying phenological shifts of California plants is growing. To leverage new phenological data and to promote biodiversity literacy, the CAP Network has developed a 10-week course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) that guides students through (1) developing a research question about the effects of climate on plant phenological events, (2) designing analyses to answer their question(s), (3) generating phenological data, (4) downloading and cleaning specimen data, (5) conducting analyses in R, and (6) producing a high-quality research poster or paper. The course is intended to provide students with an authentic research experience using novel data, improving students’ understanding of the scientific process, climate change, and phenology, and increasing their data literacy skills. The course was successfully beta tested at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo during the 2020 spring quarter.
Cite this work
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
- Pearson, K., Love, N., Parada, T., Yost, J. (2020). A New Phenology-focused CURE using Herbarium Specimen Data. Cultivating Scientific Curiosity, QUBES Educational Resources. doi:10.25334/DBYN-ZX80