Interactive learning experiences with open source Jupyter Notebooks
Activities in our society are generating large amounts of data, and organizations are becoming more dependent on this data for their day-to-day activities or long-term strategies. Climate science is no exception to this rule: vast amounts of data are produced and analyzed by various research groups. We need to prepare the next generation of students for these developments in and outside of science. This project aims to develop a tool without commercial software for students to train these skills.
Background
We propose to develop Jupyter Notebooks for use in the BSc Global Sustainability Science and MSc Sustainable Development. A Jupyter Notebook, is a document that can be opened in a web browser and that consists of multiple cells. These cells can contain text with mathematical equations, images and videos, but also code (e.g., Python, R). The code can then be executed (usually a calculation) on request of the user/student and the results of this are then shown below the executed cell in the Jupyter Notebook (see also https://jupyter.org/).
Jupyter Notebooks are used in research, but also attractive in teaching, for instance for computer practicals. In such applications, the Jupyter Notebook typically starts with a cell that contains an introductory text, followed by a cell that contains code for a calculation, which again is followed by a text cell that provides some reflection on the calculation. The use of Jupyter Notebooks has several attractive features e.g., benefiting from open source software, stimulate (inter)active learning, gain experience with programming and Jupyter Notebooks can be used in the cloud without installing software or downloading data by the student.
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