New project aims to advance open and inclusive science
A two-year, $500,000 award from NASA to Columbia Climate School Sisson A new project will be launched aimed at making science more accessible and inclusive.
The project, Science Core Heuristics for Open Science Learning Outcomes (SCHOOL), will develop a virtual classroom for researchers at various career levels to understand how open science can support scientific discovery.The project will be led by a CIESIN Senior Systems Analyst/GIS Developer Kate McManuswith co-investigators Sri VinayAssociate Director, Information Technology; Greg Yetman, Associate Director, Geospatial Applications; and Professor Deborah Balk, Baruch College.
Image showing the development stages of the Open Science Ecosystem Security Tool, used in the previous project Provided by CIESIN and iSciences. The data lifecycle phases of analysis, visualization and interpretation of NASA data will be part of an online course developed by a new CIESIN project, Science Core Heuristics for Open Science Learning Outcomes (SCHOOL).
SCHOOL courses will be structured around the data science lifecycle, using open, interactive, geoscience-applied use cases spanning the disciplines of water resources, agriculture, health and air quality, disasters, climate, wildfire, and environmental justice, as well as domain population and infrastructure integrated into each. Teaching will involve accessing and analyzing NASA data sources, making extensive use of data and services from 12 NASA Distributed Active Archive Centers, including CIESIN’s Center for Socioeconomic Data and Applications (SEDAC) Is a. Highly interactive modules will leverage core open source data, analytics and visualization libraries. Users will be guided through the generation, collection, processing, storage, management, analysis, visualization, and interpretation of NASA data.
The program will educate scientists at multiple career levels—from undergraduates to full-fledged scientists and professional teams. The approach to developing learning modules will prioritize diverse contributions and perspectives, and will use free and open technologies to establish best practice in content creation management. Teams will include not only subject matter experts and developers, but end users from a variety of ethnic, linguistic, and socioeconomic groups, including historically underrepresented groups, who will receive support for engagement. Principles of inclusive teaching and active learning, acknowledging that students arrive with unique needs and abilities, including physical or cognitive diversity, as well as socioeconomic, linguistic, and cultural differences, will guide content development.
Over the course of the two-year project, modules will be regularly produced and published in hybrid public meetings, engaging the different communities in identifying module requirements. Content will be suitable for self-study or instructor-led study and will be available in English and Spanish.
In earlier work funded by the US Army Corps of Engineers, CIESIN and iSciences Open science tools developed as part of ecological security Dante project. iSciences will contribute to the SCHOOL project.
The award is part of NASA’s transition to open science (maximum amount) mission, under the leadership of NASA Open Source Science Initiative Increase understanding and adoption of open science principles and technologies, which was declared a priority by President Joe Biden in January 2023.
