Collaborative Research: Environmental Data-Driven Inquiry and Exploration (EDDIE): Using Large Datasets to Build Quantitative Reasoning

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Teaching students the mathematical and statistical skills needed to work with large amounts of data is a challenge in contemporary STEM education. This project aims to address that challenge by developing classroom modules that enable undergraduate students to explore real-world data from biology, geology, and environmental science. Faculty at four institutions (Illinois State University, Carleton College, the University of Arizona, and CUNY-Queens College) will collaborate to develop these modules, which will enable students to use real data to ask and answer questions. By working together as a community, instructors who use these modules may identify ways to improve teaching of quantitative reasoning skills, with the potential to transform how data science is taught. Modules will be used to teach both STEM majors and non-majors, to help build an informed citizenry that can understand and make science-based decisions.This project seeks to develop a novel way to build a community of instructors, as well as develop materials that may enhance the teaching and learning of data at the undergraduate-level at a broad range of institutions. This community will develop curricular and supporting materials to enhance teaching of quantitative and statistical skills to undergraduate students in earth science-related fields. The project will also promote faculty engagement with materials and professional development activities designed to foster pedagogical orientation favoring inquiry-based pedagogy with large datasets. Shifting pedagogical orientation of instructors from direct instruction to inquiry-based instruction may improve student learning outcomes related to quantitative literacy. The project will investigate connecting teaching quantitative skills with real-world data and a community-based approach that includes 1) collecting and documenting community needs through topical workshops; 2) the development and evaluation of new teaching resources and instructional strategies; 3) new adaptations and examples of successful curricula, implementation, and material sequencing; and 4) professional development and project propagation activities promoting widespread adoption of these new approaches. The project seeks to generate evidence about how to develop and engage a broad community of users, as well as how an instructor's pedagogical orientation shifts from direct to inquiry-based. A variety of metrics (e.g. participant demographics; website pageviews; social network analytics) and survey data will be gathered and analyzed. Feedback from the instructors will inform improvements of the module materials and the training in inquiry-based pedagogy. The co-developed and tested modules will be publicly available. The project also aims to produce a cadre of faculty members who are trained in skills and tools for teaching quantitative skills, as well as an advanced understanding of how the collaborative development of teaching materials might lead to a change in pedagogical orientation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.