OCESE: Opensource Computing for Earth Science Education

Completed

About

The complete final project documentation can be found here: https://eoas-ubc.github.io/

The OCESE project (May 2020 through Apr 2023) aims to transform undergraduate quantitative teaching and learning in UBC’s Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science (EOAS) using open source tools including:

Python as the principal and persistant programing language for students;
Jupyter notebooks for entry-level or advanced courses requiring writing or modifying code;
use of executable books (like the one you are reading here) to deliver static content (textbooks) or dynamic materials in the form of Jupyter notebooks;
interactive dashboards for exploring concepts and data sets, programed using Python and a consistent interactive library (Plotly Dash);
use of emerging automatic assessment practices (nbgrader, a Jupyter Notebook plugin, Prairielearn, and others);
use of GitHub as a collaborative means of collaborating on development of Open Source content, tools and logistics.

For a comprehensive documentation of the project, including a final report, please visit the project website: https://eoas-ubc.github.io/

Objectives

Enhance the exposure to, and learning of, quantitative Earth Science for all students taking EOAS courses.
Increase the computational and numerical literacy of students pursuing EOAS degree specializations.
Promote adoption of open source resources and teaching or learning practices.
Develop & test affordable, sustainable cloud computing facilities
Generate training materials and documentation based on lessons learned about taching and learning with the tools and tactics developed.
Support the Faculty of Science minor in Data Science and especially the new first year Data Science course DSCI 100 developed by the Department of Statistics.
Engage with and support new and existing faculty to help meet the first three project goals.

Work Plan, Timeline & Milestones

Visit the project website for detailed annual progress reports: https://eoas-ubc.github.io/

Outputs, Products or Deliverables

The official final report to the TLEF funding source can be seen here.
A succinct list of lessons learned during the OCESE project was prepared for presentation as a poster (linked here) at the Earth Educators’ Rendezvous meeting Pasadena, CA, July 2024. The summary is organized under three headings:
- lessons learned about engaging with data and concepts,
- lessons learned regarding computing for EOAS students, and
- lessons learned related to departmental and institutional support and sustainment.
A casual summary for the public was written for UBC’s EduBytes news letter in November 2023. See the article “Implementing computational tools for learning” about the Department’s project to implement open source computational tools and teaching tactics to facilitate hands-on interdisciplinary learning in data-driven scientific exploration.

Anticipated Impacts

Improved efficiency, agility, and relevance of data science & computing pedagogy in EOAS.
Increased versatility and relevance of numerical and computational skills of an increasing number of quantitatively oriented students taking degrees with EOAS.
Sustainable hardware, software and workflows that enable consistent learning & computing experiences of instructors and students regardless of what personal computing resources they use.
Training new and existing faculty and researchers to use new, open source computational tools.