Using Online Natural History Databases to Support Innovation in Undergraduate Education

Tracy Barbaro, EOL, Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology

• Introduction to EOL • How Can I Use EOL in My Classroom?• Hands On – Collections– Scientific Writing/Student Contributions– Ecosystem Explorer – Species Interactions

EOL.org

EOL in Summary: • Global, on-line resource—plants, animals,

microorganisms• Web pages for 1.9 million known species• Plus millions more yet to be described • Serves authoritative information as well as contributions

from the general public.

Guiding Principles:

• Common format• Freely available• Open Source, Open Access• Collaboratively built• Customizable by user • Never completed

What is the Encyclopedia of Life?

Early 2000's Dan Janzen (U.Pa) and Chris Thompson(SI) envision online species pages, around the world several web projects start.

Background

2003

2007

Atlas of Living AustraliaBiodiversity Heritage LibraryChinese Academy of SciencesLa Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad (CONABIO)Field Museum of Natural HistoryHarvard UniversityEl Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio)Marine Biological LaboratoryMissouri Botanical GardenNCB Naturalis - the Netherlands Centre for BiodiversityNew Library of AlexandriaSmithsonian InstitutionSouth African National Biodiversity Institution (SANBI)

EOL is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the following institutions:

Support

Content PartnersEOL serves species information from authoritative content partners, individuals scientists, citizen scientists, students and the general public. Below are some of our content partners:

..and many more

How Can I Use EOL in My Classroom?

Taxon Pages As Resources for StudentsInformation for each species on EOL is aggregated from hundreds of

content partners into a common template called a Taxon Page. Each tab on the taxon page contains different content.

Detailed Information, Media, Maps, Names, Multiple Classifications, Literature

LiteratureTaxon pages are a great place for finding literature/references: aggregated references for the entire taxon page and resources from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

Searching on EOLYou can search for taxa by common name or scientific name. You can also search for EOL Collections and Communities. You can filter your search results by content type.

Filter your search by content type

Trusted and Un-reviewed ContentEOL serves both trusted and un-reviewed content. You can filter your results to show only the types of content you are looking for.

Tools and Activities

• Collections

• Students Writing Brief Summaries for EOL

• Ecosystem Explorer

CollectionsYou can “collect” taxon pages, media, maps, etc. on EOL. The items you collect are links back to the taxon page (or image, video, sound, map, etc.).

Essentially a collection is a grouping of links to taxa of interest. You can annotate and share this collection with others on EOL.

Using Collections IdeasCreate a collection of….

• Taxon pages for each of your lab specimens (1)• Specimens you normally would not have access to in the lab (1)• taxa based on habitat or associations/interactions• taxa found on a sampling field trip• images or video that exemplify species behavior

1. Source: Encyclopedia of Life Collections: Biodiversity Resources for Biology Teachers. Michael Windelspecht, Ricochet Science. Accessed at http://ricochetscience.com/eol_biodiversity/ on 2/22/13

Example Lab Collection: http://eol.org/collections/52874

Student Contributions:EOL Content Priorities

• You may come across a taxon page with no information. This is because we do not have a content provider for this taxa yet. EOL has determined that many of these pages are of high priority.

• Undergraduate and Graduate students can research and synthesize information about taxa on EOL’s high priority taxa list and then summarize this information in an brief summary suitable for the general public as part of their coursework.

Student Contributions to EOLUndergraduate and graduate students can help build EOL by researching and writing:

• Brief species summaries• Comprehensive descriptions • Topics such as ecology, habitat or conservation• More complete taxon pages

Student work is vetted and reviewed by their professors. Over the past 5 years, students have contributed to hundreds of pages on EOL! Instructors serve as curators/review and vet student work.

See examples on EOL: http://eol.org/info/student_contributions

Student Contributions Workflow1. Work with EOL to develop a taxa list for your

students2. Introduce EOL project and eol.org to your

students3. Students research taxa (species, genus, etc.) 4. Students write a brief summary or other topic(s)5. Peer Review6. Instructor review (TA’s are helpful here)7. Students enter summaries into the class’s

Education LifeDesk for publishing to EOL taxon pages

Publishing to EOL: Education LifeDesk

Student Contributions on EOLExample of student contributed brief summary, references and attribution. Student contributions appear as unreviewed until reviewed by a curator

http://www.edulifedesks.org/home

Guest login:username: guestpass: eolguest123

Go to: http://www.edulifedesks.org/class/8556

Education LifeDesk

Ecosystem ExplorerThe EOL Ecosystem Explorer provides a easy way to create engaging graphs of species interactions within an ecosystem. While still in development, you can view and interact with some example ecosystems.

Ecosystem Explorer

Example Ecosystem:

http://fieldguides.eol.org/eco/ecovis.php?ecosystem=39 • Under “Selected Species” Click on “Edit”• Edit selected taxon

• Click on “Add new”• Add a new predator - prey interaction

More Information

Encyclopedia of Life www.eol.org

EOL Learning + Education http://education.eol.org/ Questions?

Email: education(at)eol.org