Using NEON data to CURE an undergraduate ecology lecture course

Giving undergraduate students authentic, inquiry-based research experiences can help motivate them to want to more deeply understand the subjects they are learning. Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) are one way to expose a larger number of students to the practice of research. The modern practice of ecology is increasingly quantitative and computational, but undergraduate courses that reflect this research landscape can be challenging to implement. Fortunately, newly available NEON datasets make it easier to design ecology classes where students develop and answer authentic questions. This talk will share my experience (good, bad, and ugly) implementing such a course.