Title: Leveraging the Paleobiology Database data for undergraduate education
Date: 22 October 2015
Time: 3-4 pm EDT
Virtual meeting place: https://idigbio.adobeconnect.com/scnet
Presenter: Mark H. Uhen, Assistant Professor, Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences Affiliate, Department of Environmental Science and Policy
With the rapid growth of "big data" in the sciences, the need to understand and manage their use in undergraduate education has become increasingly important. Dr. Uhen will investigate how the Paleobiology Database (PBDB), a large database of fossil information, can be leveraged to provide research experiences to undergraduates at two and four-year colleges that do not necessarily have extensive fossil collections of their own. The Paleobiology Database (PaleoBioDB) is a non-governmental, non-profit public resource for paleontological data. Its purpose is to provide global, collection-based occurrence and taxonomic data for organisms of all geological ages, as well data services to allow easy access to data for independent development of analytical tools, visualization software, and applications of all types. The Database’s broader goal is to encourage and enable data-driven collaborative efforts that address large-scale paleobiological questions. This project will guide how other large scientific databases can be used to craft research experiences for undergraduate students, and provide the means for other earth science programs to engage their undergraduates in scientific research.
