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1. DECOR: The Database of Educational Crystallographic Online Resources, Updates and Prospectus

   Zdilla, M. J. (August 2020, American Crystallographic Association National Meeting 2020)

   The Database of Educational Crystallographic Online Resources (DECOR) is the worlds first repository for educational resources for the teaching of crystallography and diffraction. The site, available at decor.cst.temple.edu, permits the sharing and downloading of educational resources such as practice problems, visual aids, animations, and more. The site is currently organized into three basic resource layouts: 1) Resources by Type, where visitors can browse for homework problems, presentations slides, or animations across topics. 2) Resources by Topic, where visitors can look for resources relating to particular subject matter such as the reciprocal lattice, scattering, or symmetry. 3) Links, which sends visitors to other sites that provide convenient resources for crystallographic education. The purpose of the poster is to make attendees aware of this teaching resource, and to present the current state of the site, and plans to upgrade and enhance it in the near future. 

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2. CyberGIS‐Jupyter for reproducible and scalable geospatial analytics

   https://doi.org/10.1002/cpe.5040  

   Yin, Dandong; Liu, Yan; Hu, Hao; Terstriep, Jeff; Hong, Xingchen; Padmanabhan, Anand; Wang, Shaowen (November 2018, Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience)

   Summary The interdisciplinary field of cyberGIS (geographic information science and systems (GIS) based on advanced cyberinfrastructure) has a major focus on data‐ and computation‐intensive geospatial analytics. The rapidly growing needs across many application and science domains for such analytics based on disparate geospatial big data poses significant challenges to conventional GIS approaches. This paper describes CyberGIS‐Jupyter, an innovative cyberGIS framework for achieving data‐intensive, reproducible, and scalable geospatial analytics using Jupyter Notebook based on ROGER, the first cyberGIS supercomputer. The framework adapts the Notebook with built‐in cyberGIS capabilities to accelerate gateway application development and sharing while associated data, analytics, and workflow runtime environments are encapsulated into application packages that can be elastically reproduced through cloud‐computing approaches. As a desirable outcome, data‐intensive and scalable geospatial analytics can be efficiently developed and improved and seamlessly reproduced among multidisciplinary users in a novel cyberGIS science gateway environment. 

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3. PDB ‐101: Educational resources supporting molecular explorations through biology and medicine

   https://doi.org/10.1002/pro.4200  

   Zardecki, Christine; Dutta, Shuchismita; Goodsell, David_S; Lowe, Robert; Voigt, Maria; Burley, Stephen_K (October 2021, Protein Science)

   Abstract The Protein Data Bank (PDB) archive is a rich source of information in the form of atomic‐level three‐dimensional (3D) structures of biomolecules experimentally determined using macromolecular crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and electron microscopy (3DEM). Originally established in 1971 as a resource for protein crystallographers to freely exchange data, today PDB data drive research and education across scientific disciplines. In 2011, the online portal PDB‐101 was launched to support teachers, students, and the general public in PDB archive exploration (pdb101.rcsb.org). Maintained by the Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics PDB, PDB‐101 aims to help train the next generation of PDB users and to promote the overall importance of structural biology and protein science to nonexperts. Regularly published features include the highly popularMolecule of the Monthseries, 3D model activities, molecular animation videos, and educational curricula. Materials are organized into various categories (Health and Disease, Molecules of Life, Biotech and Nanotech, and Structures and Structure Determination) and searchable by keyword. A biennial health focus frames new resource creation and provides topics for annual video challenges for high school students. Web analytics document that PDB‐101 materials relating to fundamental topics (e.g., hemoglobin, catalase) are highly accessed year‐on‐year. In addition, PDB‐101 materials created in response to topical health matters (e.g., Zika, measles, coronavirus) are well received. PDB‐101 shows how learning about the diverse shapes and functions of PDB structures promotes understanding of all aspects of biology, from the central dogma of biology to health and disease to biological energy. 

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4. Advancing Hydroinformatics and Water Data Science Instruction: Community Perspectives and Online Learning Resources

   https://doi.org/10.3389/frwa.2022.901393  

   Jones, Amber Spackman; Horsburgh, Jeffery S.; Bastidas Pacheco, Camilo J.; Flint, Courtney G.; Lane, Belize A. (June 2022, Frontiers in Water)

   Hydroinformatics and water data science topics are increasingly common in university graduate settings through dedicated courses and programs as well as incorporation into traditional water science courses. The technical tools and techniques emphasized by hydroinformatics and water data science involve distinctive instructional styles, which may be facilitated by online formats and materials. In the broader hydrologic sciences, there has been a simultaneous push for instructors to develop, share, and reuse content and instructional modules, particularly as the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a wide scale pivot to online instruction. The experiences of hydroinformatics and water data science instructors in the effectiveness of content formats, instructional tools and techniques, and key topics can inform educational practice not only for those subjects, but for water science generally. This paper reports the results of surveys and interviews with hydroinformatics and water data science instructors. We address the effectiveness of instructional tools, impacts of the pandemic on education, important hydroinformatics topics, and challenges and gaps in hydroinformatics education. Guided by lessons learned from the surveys and interviews and a review of existing online learning platforms, we developed four educational modules designed to address shared topics of interest and to demonstrate the effectiveness of available tools to help overcome identified challenges. The modules are community resources that can be incorporated into courses and modified to address specific class and institutional needs or different geographic locations. Our experience with module implementation can inform development of online educational resources, which will advance and enhance instruction for hydroinformatics and broader hydrologic sciences for which students increasingly need informatics experience and technical skills. 

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5. popler: An r package for extraction and synthesis of population time series from the long‐term ecological research (LTER) network

   https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13319  

   Compagnoni, Aldo; Bibian, Andrew J.; Ochocki, Brad M.; Levin, Sam; Zhu, Kai; Miller, Tom E. X.; Ellison, ed., Aaron (November 2019, Methods in Ecology and Evolution)

   Abstract Population dynamics play a central role in the historical and current development of fundamental and applied ecological science. The nascent culture of open data promises to increase the value of population dynamics studies to the field of ecology. However, synthesis of population data is constrained by the difficulty in identifying relevant datasets, by the heterogeneity of available data and by access to raw (as opposed to aggregated or derived) observations.To obviate these issues, we built a relational database,popler, and itsRclient, the library popler.popleraccommodates the vast majority of population data under a common structure, and without the need for aggregating raw observations. The popler R library is designed for users unfamiliar with the structure of the database and with the SQL language. ThisRlibrary allows users to identify, download, explore and cite datasets salient to their needs.We implemented popler as a PostgreSQL instance, where we stored population data originated by the United States Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network. Our focus on the US LTER data aims to leverage the potential of this vast open data resource. The database currently contains 305 datasets from 25 LTER sites.popleris designed to accommodate automatic updates of existing datasets, and to accommodate additional datasets from LTER as well as non‐LTER studies.The combination of the online database and theRlibrary popler is a resource for data synthesis efforts in population ecology. The common structure ofpoplersimplifies comparative analyses, and the availability of raw data confers flexibility in data analysis. The popler R library maximizes these opportunities by providing a user‐friendly interface to the online database. 

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