In addition to my primary research, I am involved in programs that aim to foster interdisciplinary collaborations in the geosciences, promote open science, and build communities with the goal of improving accessibility and equity in the sciences. This work aims to have an impact across a wide audience, from developing K-12 education initiatives and programs for the general public, to establishing a community of practice for early career academic researchers.
Based on activities developed for an undergraduate oceanography course in ocean technology and engineering, we have published an activity for exposing students to principles of underwater acoustics using student-build echosounders. Sensor building exposes students to principles of electronics and engineering, while facilitating an understanding of oceanography and physics concepts through hands-on applications. The activity, as well as assembly guides and extensions is available in Oceanography:
Levine, R., S. Seroy, and D. Grünbaum. 2020. Sound and the seafloor: Determining bathymetry using student-built acoustic sensors. Oceanography 33(3), https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2020.305.
Along with members of the Grunbaum Lab at the University of Washington, we have founded Public Sensors, an education initiative to promote STEM literacy through hands-on construction and use of environmental sensors, and the collection and interpretation of local community science-based data. Through partnerships with educational organizations and public agencies, we build and distribute kits and educational materials including building guides, activities, and code for students of all ages to build their own microcontrollers for exploring the world around them. PublicSensors is also producing an open-source textbook with additional activities and instructions for both educators and hobbyists.
Working with the OOI Early Career Scientist Community of Practice, we use data from the Ocean Observatories Initiative to demonstrate the potential for interdisciplinary and open science by investigate the “surface to seafloor” impacts of atmospheric anomalies (i.e., storms, jet stream variability) using the high temporal and spatial resolution of the multi-platform OOI research arrays. Our aim is to promote collaboration among early career researchers in the geosciences and the use of openly available public datasets from the OOI and other observatory systems.
This work is now published as part of a special issue of Frontiers in Marine Science on Solving Complex Ocean Challenges Through Interdisciplinary Research: Advances from Early Career Marine Scientists:
Levine RM, Fogaren KE, Rudzin JE, Russoniello CJ, Soule DC, Whitaker JM. (2020). Open data, collaborative working platforms, and interdisciplinary collaboration: building an Early Career Scientist community of practice to leverage Ocean Observatories Initiative data to address critical questions in marine science. Frontiers in Marine Science. dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.593512.
