The Data Engagement and Access Project empowers people to utilize environmental data to improve lives.

We work with stakeholders to:

  • build educational projects that exploit the wealth of extant, publicly available scientific information.
  • access scientific instruments, techniques, and expertise.
  • develop experiences that enable people to improve their local environment, on their terms.

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Federal and state governments, environmental consultancies, community groups, nonprofits, children's museums, and more collect myriad data about water, air, and soil quality every year. Much of that data is freely accessible either in online databases or by request. At the same time, environmental crises highlight a stark need for tools that citizens can use to address their own local challenges. Finally, trends in education research and policy highlight the potential value of real-world data in instilling quantitative skills, communication skills, and building a 21st century workforce. This confluence of opportunity (underutilized public data + needs for and of environmental education) paves the way for our mission: to take valuable environmental data and give it a second life in our classrooms, communities, and lives.

About Us

We founded the Data Engagement and Access Project in September 2019 to address several interconnected needs: an abundance of low-to-no cost, underutilized data, recent national revision of K-12 curricula, trends in formal and informal education, and heightened awareness of both established and emerging environmental problems.

Where there are needs, there are opportunities. Incorporating environmental data into formal and informal education fosters numeracy, science and engineering literacy, communication skills, and more. Helping students and communities engage with data regarding their own local environment and environmental interests or concerns, empowers them to make a difference in their environment, health, and more. Finally, increasing the visibility and use of publicly-funded data provides greater return on taxpayer investment, and strengthens support for our environmental agencies.

Education

DEAP intends to leverage environmental data to support formal K-2YC education, informal education, and teacher professional development. Examples might include tailoring datasets used in math classes to local environmental topics; building place-based projects for biology, chemistry, physics, environmental science, and geology classes; incorporating local data into informal education exhibits; supporting school or center-based data collection to complement public datasets; and more.

Research

We investigate questions regarding the collection and dissemination of environmental data. We further aim to develop a suite of instruments and collaborations that will allow us to facilitate data collection, where pre-existing resources are lacking. Finally, we envision a structure through which DEAP can provide an initial summary of environmental data availability and content for community groups.

Experiences

DEAP intends to support both the Education and Research programs through development and delivery of environmental research experiences. Possible examples include a data or sample collection trip during a single class period, facilitating a field trip to a local environmental lab, or helping design a community science project, and more. New virtual experiences may overcome time and safety constraints on the classroom.

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Donate, collaborate, volunteer!

As a new nonprofit, there is much to do! We welcome financial donations, but also time. We are happy to have help with many tasks, like video design, web design, podcasts, etc. If you have some time, or a particular skill you think might be of use, please drop us a line at contact_us at envdata.org.

We are also open to collaboration with researchers in environmental/earth sciences and education. If you’re interested in testing out ideas for improving science education or devising meaningful broader impacts, we’d love to hear from you.