Meeting Abstract
First year students have few opportunities to directly experience the scientific process, read primary literature, and grapple with large datasets. In a unique marine-based seminar titled “Animal Survival in Extreme Environments”, we used primary and secondary sources to survey animals by the different types of extreme environments they inhabit. Whales, in particular, span multiple extreme habitats and several whale species are seen locally in the Stellwagen Bank Marine Sanctuary (SBMS, north of Cape Cod, MA). For the midterm project, we tasked each student to design their own study and write a scientific paper using a large dataset of observational data collected during whale watch cruises to the SBMS. The dataset included three years of what, where, and when different whales were seen; what feeding, breaching, and traveling behaviors were observed; and if calves were present. Each student came up with a hypothesis and analyzed different portions of the data to test their hypothesis. We introduced them to the necessary skills in a stepwise manner, which included reading primary literature, writing an introduction, participating in peer review, analyzing data, and writing results. The 23 students (61% STEM majors, 39% non-majors) exceeded our expectations and student surveys indicated that 100% of the students were more confident in their data analysis skills and 83% were more confident in writing scientific papers upon completion of this challenging project. The stepwise approach we used was very effective with training this group of diverse students in the scientific process and familiarizing them with data analysis. Our pedagogical strategies can be adapted to other large datasets so that more first year students can have an authentic research experience in the classroom.
