Alaska Data for
Undergraduate Educational Modules

We are a network of educators, researchers, and data managers working to improve educational outcomes by providing STEM undergraduates and instructors with access to environmental data about the changing North, to build ecological knowledge, quantitative literacy, and engagement through inquiry.

Welcome to the AK DaTUM RCN-UBE Incubator

The main goal for this project is to enhance the quantitative skills of undergraduate biology students in Alaska by developing online educational tools focused on the state’s changing environment; a topic relevant to Alaska’s underserved student populations. Other goals are to:

  1. Enhance the preparation of biology undergraduates for a future that will increasingly demand quantitative literacy and the ability to manage and interpret data; 
  2. Increase student knowledge about climate change and its biological impacts within the state in which temperatures are changing fastest;  
  3. Foster novel collaborations between ecologists, biodiversity scientists and data scientists that will enable innovative approaches for research to inspire a new generation of students to pursue careers in STEM; and
  4. Improve educational outcomes for a diverse group of undergraduates, including Indigenous, rural, and non-traditional students, by increasing opportunities for inquiry and research and promoting active and collaborative learning.

A plane taking off along side gear it's left on the ground in the Alaskan bush

Workshops

We ran 4 network workshops and have provided some of the recordings of these workshop under the workshop tap.

The gloved hand of someone conducting a pH test in a body of water out in the field

Data Resources

We are building a network that links biology undergraduate educators and students with online data and resources relevant to the changing environment of the North, including the data from Arctic and boreal long-term ecological research (LTER) programs, the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) Arctic and Taiga domains, the Scenarios Network for Alaska and Arctic Planning (SNAP), and the UA Museum data in ARCTOS.

Ground cover with small pink flowers, in Alaska

Topic Modules

Three modules have been completed and are being used in various educational settings.