Faculty Mentoring Networks
With an increasing recognition that our students need to be able to manage, visualize, analyze, and interpret data, NEON Data Education Faculty Mentoring Networks (FMNs) are designed to support faculty interested in working using NEON data in their classroom. NEON Data Education Fellows have completed the NEON Data Education FMN and have shared their new teaching materials as Open Educational Resources for others to use.
FMNs Create Open Education Resources using NEON Data
NEON FMNs are cohosted by NEON and the Quantitative Undergraduate Biology Education and Synthesis project (QUBES). Our FMNs are also a collaborative effort between scientists from the NEON program and university and college faculty interested in using NEON data. Using the QUBES collaboration and education materials sharing platform, FMN cohorts aim to provide undergraduate faculty with Open Educational Resources (OERs). OERs are freely accessible teaching modules, data sets, and media that enable faculty to easily find and implement data-centered, student-centric materials as needed for their own students.
The primary focus of NEON FMNs is to get NEON data into undergraduate ecology and biology courses, although participants have also used materials in graduate and advanced high school classes.
Participants in a NEON FMN who publish their open educational resource on QUBESHub, Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology (TIEE), CourseSource, or other education journal or OER repository are recognized as NEON Data Education Fellows.
How to Participate in a NEON-QUBES FMN
Each semester, a new cohort of educators comes together to learn about NEON data and resources, get expert advice for introducing real-world data activities into the classroom, and support each other as they implement data-centered learning activities with their own students. The materials created by participants include NEON data-centered activities designed to help students learn transferable quantitative skills while exploring relevant topics in biology and ecology.
Participants are expected to attend two one-hour virtual meetings per month during the semester. They are also expected to implement at least one quantitative activity using NEON data with their students, provide feedback on materials produced by other FMN members, and contribute modifications or new content to the QUBESHub NEON page, a growing database of classroom-ready quantitative lessons and resources.
Please visit our Upcoming Events page to find the next FMN application deadline.