Data Nuggets

Featured Data Nugget: Scientists taking soil cores to determine whether organic matter stores important nutrients, like phosphorus, in wetland soils.
Featured Data Nugget: The Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest is home to the one of the longest running bird studies ever conducted! What can we learn about migratory bird populations from this unique long-term dataset?
Featured Data Nugget: Corn is used to produce most of the biofuels that humans consume today, but it does not make a good habitat for wildlife. Can diverse prairies serve as a viable alternative?
Featured Data Nugget: Grasshopper mice feed on two different species of scorpions - one with a painful sting and one that is painless. Will the mice choose to avoid the scorpions with the painful sting?
Featured Data Nugget: Today more and more people are moving from rural to urban areas. This means that cities are becoming the primary places where many people experience nature and interact with wildlife.
Featured Data Nugget: Because herbivores are so important for how plants grow, they may determine how well an exotic plant does in its new habitat and whether it becomes invasive.
Featured Data Nugget: Big wings allow butterflies to fly everywhere with ease. But you may wonder, why are the wings of some species so brightly colored?
Featured Data Nugget: You may think that blow fly maggots are gross, but did you know they can help solve crimes? The age of a maggot helps scientists determine how long ago a body died.
Featured Data Nugget: The world's coral reefs are home to a large diversity of plants and animals, and are threatened by climate change. When the water gets too warm, some corals bleach and some can survive.
Featured Data Nugget: What can tree rings tell us about the past climate of Australia, and whether current weather patterns are changing due to climate change?
Featured Data Nugget: When is a mutualism not a mutualism? Under certain environmental conditions, such as soils with high nitrogen, Rhizobia may become parasites to plants.
Featured Data Nugget: Climate change is causing waters to warm, and species will need to adapt to survive. Do salmon have the genes necessary to survive in these new conditions?

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Data Nuggets are free classroom activities, co-designed by scientists and teachers. They are an innovative approach to bring contemporary research and authentic data into the classroom. Data Nuggets include a connection to the scientist behind the data and the true story of their research process. Data Nuggets give students practice working with “messy data” and interpreting quantitative information. Students are guided through the entire process of science, including identifying hypotheses and predictions, visualizing and interpreting data, making evidence based claims, and asking their own questions for future research. Because of their simplicity and flexibility, Data Nuggets can be used throughout the school year, and across grades K-16, as students grow in their quantitative abilities and gain confidence. Data Nuggets have the potential to improve the understanding of science in society and help engage and motivate the next generation of scientists and engineers.