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The datasets (PSGFS_compiled_data_2022.xlsx, PSGFS_compiled_data_2023 and PSGFS_compiled_data_2024.xlsx) were collected by undergraduate students during the time they participated in the Plant Science for Global Food Security (PSGFS) program in summers 2022, 2023 and 2024 at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI; Los Baños, Philippines). The PSGFS program is an initiative funded by the National Science Foundation (Grant: NSF IRES #2106718) and led by Diane Wang and Gary Burniske of Purdue University and Amelia Henry and Anilyn Maningas of IRRI. Purdue University PhD student, To-Chia Ting, assisted in compiling these datasets.  The explanation of each worksheet in a excel file could be found in the associated word files (PSGFS_README_2022.doc, PSGFS_README_2023.doc and PSGFS_README_2024.doc). PDF files of the presentations given by the students are also provided and compressed in the Student_presentation_2022.zip, Student_presentation_2023.zip and Student_presentation_2024.zip file. File names of the presentations are composed of worksheet names and students’ last names. 

Abstract Flare frequency distributions represent a key approach to addressing one of the largest problems in solar and stellar physics: determining the mechanism that counterintuitively heats coronae to temperatures that are orders of magnitude hotter than the corresponding photospheres. It is widely accepted that the magnetic field is responsible for the heating, but there are two competing mechanisms that could explain it: nanoflares or Alfvén waves. To date, neither can be directly observed. Nanoflares are, by definition, extremely small, but their aggregate energy release could represent a substantial heating mechanism, presuming they are sufficiently abundant. One way to test this presumption is via the flare frequency distribution, which describes how often flares of various energies occur. If the slope of the power law fitting the flare frequency distribution is above a critical threshold,α= 2 as established in prior literature, then there should be a sufficient abundance of nanoflares to explain coronal heating. We performed >600 case studies of solar flares, made possible by an unprecedented number of data analysts via three semesters of an undergraduate physics laboratory course. This allowed us to include two crucial, but nontrivial, analysis methods: preflare baseline subtraction and computation of the flare energy, which requires determining flare start and stop times. We aggregated the results of these analyses into a statistical study to determine thatα= 1.63 ± 0.03. This is below the critical threshold, suggesting that Alfvén waves are an important driver of coronal heating.