Search for: All records

This mixed‐methods research focused on the implementation of a coordinated distributed experiment (CDE) investigating local adaptation in common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), a host plant for the monarch butterfly population. Faculty participants were recruited from the Ecological Research as Education Network (EREN) who recruited their former undergraduate students. Quantitative data were drawn from the Milkweed Local Adaptation (MLA) CDE database across the three project years. Qualitative data included faculty survey responses, semi‐structured interviews of faculty and former undergraduates, and review of undergraduate research posters, papers, and curricula using rubrics aligned with 4DEE and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) benchmarks. Analysis of the MLA CDE database illustrates a decline in both participating institutions and in counts of milkweed stems over the project (2018–2020). Qualitative data analysis revealed that CDEs: (1) offer opportunities for higher education faculty and their students to be part of research including developing skills of data collection, analysis, and interpretation; (2) have unexpected challenges; and (3) can inspire undergraduate students to develop independent research projects or curricular modules for use in formal 6–12 classrooms. Broader ecological educational implications of our outcomes for higher education faculty and their undergraduate students include: (1) recommendation that faculty members involved ought to be proactively informed about potential challenges and provided with guidance on how to mitigate them; (2) mitigating challenges with model studies to try to estimate the sample size and redundancy likely to produce robust data; and (3) proactive use of the educational network to understand institutional use of the CDE project with undergraduates.

 

Abstract The 40Ar/39Ar dating method is among the most versatile of geochronometers, having the potential to date a broad variety of K-bearing materials spanning from the time of Earth’s formation into the historical realm. Measurements using modern noble-gas mass spectrometers are now producing 40Ar/39Ar dates with analytical uncertainties of ∼0.1%, thereby providing precise time constraints for a wide range of geologic and extraterrestrial processes. Analyses of increasingly smaller subsamples have revealed age dispersion in many materials, including some minerals used as neutron fluence monitors. Accordingly, interpretive strategies are evolving to address observed dispersion in dates from a single sample. Moreover, inferring a geologically meaningful “age” from a measured “date” or set of dates is dependent on the geological problem being addressed and the salient assumptions associated with each set of data. We highlight requirements for collateral information that will better constrain the interpretation of 40Ar/39Ar data sets, including those associated with single-crystal fusion analyses, incremental heating experiments, and in situ analyses of microsampled domains. To ensure the utility and viability of published results, we emphasize previous recommendations for reporting 40Ar/39Ar data and the related essential metadata, with the amendment that data conform to evolving standards of being findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) by both humans and computers. Our examples provide guidance for the presentation and interpretation of 40Ar/39Ar dates to maximize their interdisciplinary usage, reproducibility, and longevity.