Workshop on Data Access and Usability in Education; Los Alamos Research Park, Los Alamos, New Mexico

Terc Inc, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

In this workshop the participants will review recommendations from smaller working groups concerning various aspects of enabling more effective access and use of Earth and space science data in education and provide recommendations concerning the issues: 1) what are the requirements for an online intellectual commons area that can facilitate the collaboration of scientists and educators to develop educational uses of Earth and space science data; 2) what are the review criteria for Earth and space science data sites that can be used to establish whether a dataset is sufficiently accessible and usable by the educational community to recommend its use; and 3) what are the educational metadata that should be required, in addition to the scientific metadata, that should accompany and Earth science data sites that will make them discoverable and usable by the educational community. The recommendations coming from this workshop will be a valuable contribution to both the scientific and educational communities in that will help provide a framework from which these two communities can work together to truly establish an integration of research and education. The scientific community will have a clearer picture of what it means to facilitate the use of their data and scientific results in education, and how that will help them satisfy the Broader Impacts requirement in their research proposals. The educational community will gain mechanisms to use to help them develop educational resources using Earth and space science data. The broader impacts of this effort are quite wide reaching. The educational community will eventually obtain better access to Earth and space science data and an ability to see how to make the use of that data an effective tool for helping their students learn the scientific concepts they are required to study. In addition, the outcomes of this workshop will establish a framework that will enable the use of scientific data from other disciplines by the educational community. Ultimately, it will lead to a more scientifically literate student body, many of whom may go on to become the Earth scientists of the future.