Data is the currency of scientific discovery, but when packaged in complex spreadsheets or figures with obscure unit measurements, many can find it intimidating to interpret.

Breaking down those obstacles and making scientific data accessible is the goal of the Data Jam, an event to be held on Monday, May 15, in Puerto Rico’s El Yunque National Forest. There, local middle and high school students will present their creative interpretations of environmental data collected from the surrounding tropical forest by Penn researchers and others.

El Yunque is home to the Luquillo Critical Zone Observatory (CZO), one of a network of nine National Science Foundation-supported research stations where multidisciplinary teams of scientists study the area’s biology, geology, and chemistry from bedrock to the top of the tree canopy. Several faculty members and students from Penn’s Department of Earth and Environmental Science, led by associate professor Alain Plante, are involved in research at the Luquillo CZO, the only tropical ecosystem represented in the network.

Miguel Leon, the information manager of the Luquillo CZO who is based at Penn, pushed for a Data Jam as a way of sharing the work done in Puerto Rico with a larger—and younger—audience. Steven McGee from Northwestern University, a LCZO collaborator who has led many of the education and outreach efforts, partnered with Penn staff and faculty to develop the learning activity.

“Part of the impetus was to have a space where the CZO scientists could interact with the local students,” Leon says.

The first Data Jam was held last spring in conjunction with a Luquillo CZO scientific meeting and poster presentation at El Yunque’s visitor center. Students from local middle and high schools presented their projects, which ranged from formal scientific posters to less-traditional creations, such as a diorama depicting the forest’s stream systems and a rap song about global warming and drought.

This year, Leon has again been working with the University of Puerto Rico’s Noelia Báez, McGee, and other partners to prepare a dataset for students to interpret, using information collected by scientists affiliated with the CZO as well as the NSF-sponsored Luquillo Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) program. The CZO and LTER teams also held a workshop in Puerto Rico last fall for 20 science teachers, helping to get them comfortable with datasets reflecting measurements such as stream flow, rainfall, and soil moisture taken during both droughts and storm events. These teachers were then able to incorporate data analysis activities in their own classrooms. Some of the results will be on display at this month’s Data Jam. 

The CZO team is looking forward to more good outcomes this year, with 20 students from nine different schools expected to participate.

“I think it’s a unique opportunity for students to work with data that is real and answer some interesting questions about it,” says Elizabeth Coward, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science who studies soil carbon in the Luquillo CZO and attended last year’s presentation. “These are students from the local areas who have probably been to the park, and now they get to learn firsthand about the science that’s happening there.”