A primary goal of undergraduate general education science courses is to help students become familiar with data in a general sense and, ideally, understand how data is collected and used.  This can be accomplished by referring to students’ personal experiences with the Earth and Earth processes, having students make and record observations and access existing data sets, using collected data to develop and test hypotheses and models, and, ultimately, developing reasonable conclusions supported by the data.  When teaching introductory oceanography, this process may be complicated by students’ lack of familiarity with the ocean (other than occasional visits to the beach), the difficulty of providing access to the ocean, the introduction of new terminology, and discomfort with numerical data.

Illinois Valley Community College’s Oceanography course is a three credit hour course with no lab, which can limit opportunities to work with data.  I have integrated data-rich exercises to help students become more comfortable with data and access and explore ocean data.  The exercises encourage students to explore, discuss, and share and build students’ confidence accessing, examining, and working with data.

The class begins with a nonsense data exercise that serves as an ice-breaker, a chance to discuss data and develop hypotheses, and an encouragement to ask questions about confusing terms and data sets.  Later in the semester, students access and explore data from Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) and the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) and work with their peers to analyze and interpret data. The OOI Data Labs site (https://datalab.marine.rutgers.edu/) includes a wide variety of resources that range from highly structured to open-ended. In my course, a jigsaw exercise using OOI’s Lab Book Chapter 2 “Building Data Skills” follows the nonsense data exercise and helps students understand the types of data and displays they will encounter in the course.  As the semester progresses, students complete several units from OOI Data Explorations and BIOS "DataBytes" and are introduced to the OOI Data Explorer in an open-ended exercise where they explore the site, record what they find, and share their experiences. These interactions with data provide a deeper context and allow for interactions with real-world data that results in a more interesting, engaging, and meaningful experience.