NEON Data Skills & Teaching Resources - EREN FMN

Ecology is a field known for close, personal collaborations and camaraderie in the lab and in the field. But with the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting laboratories, colleges, and universities around the world, ecologists have been challenged to reimagine what it means to teach and do ecology as a community. To address this challenge, NEON Scientists Claire Lunch and Donal O'Leary will join the Ecological Research as Education Network (EREN) Faculty Mentoring Network (FMN) to discuss NEON educational resources including teaching modules, data skills tutorials, and YouTube videos. These resources are used successfully in numerous curricula and for self-guided study so that our field can continue to move forward through this pandemic and into the new normal.

The resources listed below will be discussed during this meeting, and will remain on this page in perpetuity as a reference for meeting attendees and other NEON data users.

Teaching Modules:

NEON staff and external faculty scientists have developed numerous teaching modules that are designed to be ready-to-implement lessons for undergraduate-level ecology instruction. These resources are hosted on the NEON Group Page on the Quantitative Undergraduate Biology Education and Synthesis (QUBES) hub webpage qubeshub.org

Data Skills Tutorials:

NEON and collaborators have developed 140+ data skills tutorials that span a variety of subjects including basic R skills, orientations to NEON-specific datasets, and series on themes such as remote sensing and biodiversity. Here are some links to the most relevant tutorials for getting started with NEON data:

• Download and Explore NEON Data is your first stop for learning how to access NEON data and load it into an R environment.
• Using an API Token when Accessing NEON Data with neonUtilities is a great lesson on how to sign up for a NEON data portal account and use your personal token to increase your download speed and track your important data access metrics.
• Access and Work with NEON Geolocation Data is an excellent introduction to NEON's spatial data, including the precise (x,y,z) coordinates for NEON field observations.
• Download and work with NEON Aquatic Instrument Data uses NEON's AIS data to explore our extensive quality control metrics and data flags. This is essential reading if you are using NEON data in your research!
• And many many more available on our Tutorial Homepage Here.

YouTube Videos:

NEON has an awesome collection of videos on our YouTube Channel Here. Here are a few of our favorites for getting started:

• NEON: Open Data to Understand our Changing Ecosystems - an excellent introduction to the NEON program.
• The NEON Science Explained playlist provides brief but detailed introductions to the many aspects of NEON including the scientific and spatial designs, data processing pipelines, sampling protocols, and more.
• The Science Explained playlist provides more general explanations of scientific concepts to a general audience. These videos are awesome to use in classrooms!!
• NEON Remote Sensing: Fundamental concepts and NEON data products - provides excellent graduate-level seminars on the many aspects of NEON Airborne Observation Platform (AOP) science and collections.

NEON Presenters:

We are always happy to hear from our colleagues here at NEON! Please feel free to reach out to your presenters, or using the Contact Us form and we will address your inquiry with the most appropriate subject matter experts.

Claire Lunch, PhD; Research Scientist, Data Science; NEON program, Battelle
Donal O'Leary, PhD; Research Scientist, Science Education; NEON program, Battelle