Data Nuggets

Data literacy is important for both students and educators as it is essential in the development of quantitative reasoning skills. Data Nuggets and Data Jams help students develop critical thinking skills as they explore authentic datasets derived from cutting edge science designed in partnership by teachers and scientists. By exploring actual data students also connect with the personal story of the researcher and the real life challenges that goes into scientific research.

Data Nuggets give students practice working with real world ecological data and interpreting quantitative information. Students are guided via a scaffolding model that follows the scientific process including identifying hypotheses and predictions, visualizing and interpreting data, making evidence based claims, and asking their own questions for future research.

Data Nuggets can be used throughout the school year, and across grades K-16, as students grow in their quantitative abilities and gain confidence. These Data Nuggets are derived from LTER research.

View all LTER Data Nuggets

Make way for mummichogs

Students participating in Mass Audubon’s Salt Marsh Science Project Count fish at Eastern Point Wildlife Sanctuary, Gloucester, MA

Bye bye birdie? Part I

Male Black-throated Blue Warbler feeding nestlings. Nests of this species are built typically less than one meter above ground in a shrub such as hobblebush. Photo by N. Rodenhouse.

Bye bye birdie? Part II

Red-eyed vireo in the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest

Keeping up with the sea level

Researcher Sam Bond taking Sediment Elevation Table (SET) measurements in the marsh

Urbanization and Estuary Eutrophication

Charles Hopkinson out taking dissolved O2 measurements.

Lizards, Iguanas, and Snakes! Oh My!

Is your salt marsh in the zone?

Does sea level rise harm Saltmarsh Sparrows?

Urbanization and Estuary Eutrophication

A view of the Plum Island estuary

Can a salt marsh recover after restoration?

Students collecting salinity data at a transect point. The tall tan grass is Phragmites.

The mystery of Plum Island Marsh

Scientist, Harriet Booth, counting and collecting mudsnails from a mudflat at low tide.

Invasive reeds in the salt marsh

Students collecting data on the plant species present in the marsh using transects. Every 1m along the tape, students observe which plants are present. Phragmites is the tall grass that can be seen growing behind the students.

Growing energy: comparing biofuel crop biomass

The ground has gas!

Measuring nitrogen (N2O) gas escaping from the soil in summer. Photo credit: Julie Doll, Michigan State University

Fertilizing biofuels may cause release of greenhouse gasses

Scientist Leilei collecting samples of gasses released by the growing of biofuels. Photo credit: K. Stepnitz, MSU