Collaborative Research: Ocean Tracks College Edition: Investigating Marine Migrations in a Changing Ocean

在一个数据日益密集的世界里，国家迫切需要让学生具备现代科学职业和更广泛的劳动力所需的科学推理能力和数据探究技能。为了满足这一需求，教育发展中心公司（EDC）、斯克里普斯海洋学研究所和斯坦福大学的科学家、教育工作者和研究人员一直在进行研究，开发了一种名为“海洋轨迹”的独特网络界面，供高中生使用。这个界面提供了方便的访问和一套学生友好的分析工具，以方便研究通过全球海洋学研究项目和地球轨道卫星收集的大规模数据。这个名为“海洋轨迹大学版”（OT-CE）的项目将通过为本科生开发新的课程资源和积极的学习体验来建立和扩展之前的工作。OT-CE教材将帮助不同本科院校的学生掌握关键的科学探究和数据分析技能，因为他们使用Ocean Tracks界面来调查与太平洋顶级海洋捕食者的迁徙和栖息地相关的当前科学兴趣问题。一个广泛的研究部分将调查在线教学对学生学习的影响，以及在线教学和面对面教学的相对有效性。这项研究将建立知识库，以支持学生在处理大型数据集方面的学习和技能发展。海洋轨道大学版（OT-CE）项目将开发和研究一种学习模式，使本科生能够使用真实数据进行科学实践。数据可通过Ocean Tracks接口访问，该接口是在2012-2014年利用NSF DR K-12探索性拨款开发的工具。在项目的第一年，OT-CE团队将收集基线数据，了解全国社区学院和四年制本科院校的海洋学和海洋生物学教师如何在他们的本科教学中使用真实的、大规模的数据库，以及如何设计海洋轨迹网络界面和课程，以满足不同的本科教学需求。在第二年，该团队将与加州两年制社区学院帕洛马学院（Palomar College）和四年制研究型大学斯克里普斯海洋学研究所（Scripps institute of Oceanography）的两名教员和他们的本科生共同开发和测试课程材料和实验室模块。研究将侧重于收集形成性数据，因为教师和学生参与在线和面对面版本的OT-CE材料。在最后一年，该团队将在帕洛马学院的大约250名学生中对修订后的在线OT-CE课程进行随机实验。一项外部总结性评估将收集来自本科理科教师样本的反馈，以了解在他们的大学课程中实施在线或面对面版本的OT-CE的潜在可行性。OT-CE项目将产生新的知识，这些知识可以在多个领域推广，关于如何利用大规模数据集吸引学生进行科学探究。通过研究OT-CE对在线和面对面学习形式以及两年制和四年制本科院校的影响，该项目还将对本科课程的设计产生重要见解，这些课程在不同的教育交付模式和不同的本科人群中有效地提高数据科学技能。

In a world that is increasingly data-intensive, there is an urgent national need to equip students with the scientific reasoning capacities and data inquiry skills that are required in modern scientific occupations and the broader workforce. To address this need, scientists, educators, and researchers at Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC), the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Stanford University have been conducting research that has led to the development of a unique Web interface called Ocean Tracks for use by high school students. This interface provides easy access and a set of student-friendly analysis tools to facilitate the study of large-scale data collected through global oceanographic research projects and earth-orbiting satellites. This project, The Ocean Tracks College Edition (OT-CE), will build and expand on this prior work by developing new curriculum resources and active learning experiences for students at the undergraduate level. OT-CE educational materials will help students at diverse undergraduate institutions acquire critical scientific inquiry and data analysis skills as they use the Ocean Tracks interface to investigate questions of current scientific interest related to the migrations and habitats of top marine predators in the Pacific Ocean. An extensive research component will investigate the impact of OT-CE on student learning and the relative effectiveness of OT-CE in online and face-to-face formats. This research will build the knowledge base on how to support student learning and skills development in working with large data sets.The Ocean Tracks College Edition (OT-CE) project will develop and research a learning model that allows undergraduate students to engage in scientific practices using authentic data. The data are accessed using the Ocean Tracks interface, a tool developed using an NSF DR K-12 exploratory grant in 2012-2014. During the first year of the project, the OT-CE team will gather baseline data on how oceanography and marine biology faculty at community colleges and four-year undergraduate institutions across the country are using authentic, large-scale databases in their undergraduate instruction, and how the Ocean Tracks Web interface and curriculum could be designed to meet diverse undergraduate teaching and learning needs. During the second year, the team will co-develop and test curriculum materials and lab modules with two faculty members and their undergraduate students at Palomar College, a two-year community college, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, a four-year research university, both in California. Research will focus on collecting formative data as faculty and students engage with online and face-to-face versions of OT-CE materials. During the final year, the team will conduct a randomized experiment of the revised online OT-CE curriculum with approximately 250 students at Palomar College. An external summative evaluation will collect feedback from a sample of undergraduate science faculty on the potential feasibility of implementing online or face-to-face versions of OT-CE in their college courses. The OT-CE project will produce new knowledge that can be generalized across multiple fields about how to engage students in scientific inquiry with large-scale datasets. By studying the impacts of OT-CE in both online and face-to-face learning formats as well as at two-year and four-year undergraduate institutions, the project will also yield important insights into the design of undergraduate curricula that are effective in promoting data science skills in varied educational delivery modes and among diverse undergraduate populations.