Open Explore NEON Workshop

Join NEON for a virtual workshop June 14-17, 2021!

This workshop introduces participants to NEON, teaches them how to access and work with NEON data, and allows them to interact with NEON science staff to get assistance working on the specific data products they are interested in using. The workshop includes hands-on, interactive instruction on how to access and work with NEON data, both through the NEON data portal and programmatically.

View a recording of Day 1:

Workshop Instructors

• Claire Lunch; Research Scientist, Data Science; NEON program, Battelle. Twitter: @dr_lunch
• Marie Faust; Outreach Specialist, Science Education; NEON program, Battelle

Regarding applications: we hope to accept all applicants to this virtual workshop. If the number of applicants is greater than we can support, preference will be given to applicants from minority-serving institutions, and applicants with strong plans for use of NEON data in their research or classrooms.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this workshop, participants will gain an understanding of:

• The wide variety of data products available from NEON and how to use their supporting documentation
• How to access NEON data through the Data Portal User Interface, as well as through the Application Programming Interface (API) and R-based neonUtilities code package
• The many Data Skills Tutorials available (and how to use them)
• Many other Educational Resources, including the NEONScience YouTube Channel, our Teaching Modules for Educators, and more
• How to use various NEON data products for a particular research objective through our topical Breakout Sessions
• NEON's research support through the Assignable Assets program
• And much more...

Required Prior Knowledge

All coding instruction will be conducted in R and participants will be able to complete the workshop best if they have at least an introduction to coding. Participants without past experience working in a programming environment are encouraged to complete a basic introduction to R to understand the basics -- training options can be found on the Resources for Learning R page.

Workshop Schedule

Schedule subject to change. 

Location: Online. Virtual meeting link will be sent to registered participants.

Times: This workshop is being hosted by the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), which is based in Boulder Colorado. All times listed are Mountain Daylight Time (UTC -6) using 24-hour 'military time' notation.

Note that our workshop sessions will be recorded and posted to our YouTube channel. However, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to upload these videos immediately, so it may not be possible to catch up on the day's materials prior to the next day's meeting. Therefore, we suggest that you plan to attend every session synchronously, or to message the workshop instructions for the day's materials and suggested readings. For those who will not be able to attend, please contact the instructors for the YouTube link after the workshop.

Pre-Workshop

All participants will be asked to complete self-paced online tutorials/videos before the workshop to have their laptops set up for the workshop and to learn some initial information about NEON. Please see below this agenda for software installation instructions and links to suggested videos to watch prior to the workshop.

Day 1: Monday 14 June: Accessing & Understanding NEON data

Day 2: Tuesday 15 June: Spatial Components of NEON Data

Day 3: Wednesday 16 June: Using NEON Data - Special Topics

Day 4: Thursday 17 June: Teaching and Research with NEON

Workshop Instructors

• Claire Lunch; Research Scientist, Data Science; NEON program, Battelle. Twitter: @dr_lunch
• Marie Faust; Outreach Specialist, Science Education; NEON program, Battelle

Additional NEON scientists will participate in portions of the Explore NEON workshop.

Please get in touch with the instructors prior to the workshop with any questions.

Accessibility

If you have any questions regarding the accessibility of the workshop format, please contact Donal O'Leary.

Twitter?

Please tweet at @NEON_Sci and using the hashtag using #NEONData during this workshop!

Workshop Materials

Computer Set Up Instructions

These computer workshop instructions must be completed before starting the Exploring & Downloading NEON Data portion of the Pre-workshop Introductory Materials.

R & RStudio

To participant in this workshop, you will need a computer with the most current version of R, and preferably RStudio, loaded on your computer. Prior to the workshop you should have R and, preferably, RStudio installed on your computer.

Setting Up R & RStudio

Windows R/RStudio Setup

• Download R for Windows here
• Run the .exe file that was just downloaded
• Go to the RStudio Download page
• Under Installers select RStudio X.XX.XXX - Windows 10/8/7
• Double click the file to install it

Once R and RStudio are installed, click to open RStudio. If you don't get any error messages you are set. If there is an error message, you will need to re-install the program.

Mac R/RStudio Setup

• Go to CRAN and click on Download R for (Mac) OS X
• Select the .pkg file for the version of OS X that you have and the file will download.
• Double click on the file that was downloaded and R will install
• Go to the RStudio Download page
• Under Installers select RStudio Desktop - Mac OS X XX.X (64-bit) to download it.
• Once it's downloaded, double click the file to install it

Once R and RStudio are installed, click to open RStudio. If you don't get any error messages you are set. If there is an error message, you will need to re-install the program.

Linux R/RStudio Setup

• R is available through most Linux package managers. You can download the binary files for your distribution from CRAN. Or you can use your package manager (e.g. for Debian/Ubuntu run sudo apt-get install r-base and for Fedora run sudo yum install R).
• To install RStudio, go to the RStudio Download page
• Under Installers select the version for your distribution.
• Once it's downloaded, double click the file to install it

Once R and RStudio are installed, click to open RStudio. If you don't get any error messages you are set. If there is an error message, you will need to re-install the program.

Install R Packages

Please have these packages installed and updated prior to the start of the workshop.

 install.packages("devtools")
 install.packages("neonUtilities")
 install.packages("raster")
 devtools::install_github("NEONScience/NEON-geolocation/geoNEON")
 install.packages("BiocManager")
 BiocManager::install("rhdf5")

Update R Packages

In RStudio, you can go to Tools --> Check for package updates to update previously installed packages on your computer. Or you can use update.packages() to update all packages that are installed in R automatically. More on Packages in R

Monitors

To allow for participants to view the workshop instructors (including screensharing) and to follow along with the activities on their own computer, we recommend participants have two screens to view the workshop. If you do not have access to dual monitors, alternatives include calling into the virtual meeting on a tablet or extra-large cell phone (smaller cell phone screens will make it challenging to see the presentation materials). In these are not options, the workshop can still be completed with a single monitor/screen.

Pre-workshop Materials

Please complete all materials prior to the start of the workshop. The workshop will start with time for asking questions based on these introductory materials. Please keep a list of questions or concepts you need clarified.

1. The Future of Science is Open ( Video (6 mins))
2. Introduction to NEON (Video (4 mins) )
3. Navigating the resources from NEON (Tutorial , Video (7 mins). The tutorial covers more material than the video includes).
4. Explore and Download NEON data (Tutorial, Video (6 mins). The video only includes exploring the data on the data portal, not the complete tutorial).
5. NEON Spatial Design & Geospatial Data ( Video (6 mins))