Abstract Detail

Education and Outreach

Pearson, Katelin [1], Yost, Jenn [2], Love, Natalie [3], Ramirez Parada, Tadeo [4].

Creating New Data, Questions, and Scientists: A New Phenology-focused CURE using Herbarium Specimen Data.

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. Here, we describe the design and arc of the course and the results of our pilot implementation of the course at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo during the 2020 spring quarter.

1 - Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 437 Kentucky St Apt A, San Luis Obispo, CA, 93405, United States
2 - 1243 Palm St, San Luis Obispo, CA, 93401, United States
3 - Cal Poly State University
4 - University of California, Santa Barbara

Keywords:
phenology
Biodiversity
Herbarium
biodiversity specimens
CURE
Undergraduate research.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: EO1, Education and Outreach II: Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs), COVID
Location: Virtual/Virtual
Date: Tuesday, July 28th, 2020
Time: 12:45 PM
Number: EO1002
Abstract ID:176
Candidate for Awards:None