The project revived an international workshop that provided graduate students in paleobiology with hands-on training in cutting-edge analytical methods. For various reasons, the course ceased to exist after 2015. This project restarted this valuable training initiative. The organizing committee was established and the host institutions for the first four years were identified. The committee was responsible for overseeing course advertisement, student recruitment, applicant evaluation process, instructor selection processes, and course evaluation. Recruitment plan was designed to maximize diversity of applicants and instructors involved in the course. The course was offered as a 4-week long training program modeled in many respects on the previous course, but updated to include developing topics (e.g., data mining, spatial analyses) and expanded to be more inclusive of communities that use other database resources in paleobiology (e.g., Neotoma Paleoecology Database). The course was taught in summer 2018 (at the University of Florida campus) and in summer 2019 (at the University of California Riverside campus). The 2020 edition was cancelled due to COVID-19, but a resumption is planned in 2021. The course was taught using the R programming environment, though other languages were introduced by some instructors as appropriate. The course was open to PhD students, with enrollment capped at 15 students. A diverse team of instructors and students participated in the courses. Course assessments, which included student evaluations and entry and exist surveys, indicated that the workshop represented an effective training activity that students found useful and beneficial to their professional careers. Course materials was made freely available online. The initial offering of this course in 2018 and 2019 should spearhead a lasting initiative to be continued for many years to come.

INTELLECTUAL SIGNIFICANCE: The workshop trained young scientists, including members of underrepresented groups in STEM-related activities, including analytical and statistical reasoning and computational skills (advanced programming in R language). Specifically, the workshop produced conceptual materials (lecture slides, handouts) and practical training tools (exercises, sample data sets, R codes, R tutorials) covering the following topics: introduction to statistical inference and R programming language; correlation and regression; multivariate methods in paleoecology; morphometrics; phylogenetic methods; advanced R and programming management; as well as miscellaneous tutorials on specific aspects of R language and statistical inference. Course materials that were provided to students by the instructors are archived on the workshop website (www.analytical.paleobiology.de). They are posted under a Creative Commons 4.0 International License making them freely available to public.

BROADER IMPACTS: The 2018 and 2019 workshop resulted in direct analytical training of 31 graduate students in STEM disciplines (paleobiology). These participants study at academic centers in US and other countries and are expected to share and disseminate their newly received training at their home institutions. The workshops also engaged 12 instructors who used the course as a training platform for teaching advanced topics to international audiences and enhancing their career as educators and analytical scientists. The project produced educational materials that have been posted on the workshop website (www.analytical.paleobiology.de) and can be freely accessed by anyone who is interested in improving their conceptual understanding of the analytical paleobiology methods and their R programming skills. Because the workshop is planned to be delivered annually, we expect that this initiative will establish itself as a major educational platform for young paleontologists and a major online resource for instructors and graduate students in paleobiology and related fields. In particular, the course materials represent a valuable teaching resource for upper level undergraduate and graduate instructors. Finally, the workshops represented an effective networking platform for connecting students and instructors from various academic centers across the world.

Last Modified: 06/19/2020
Modified by: Michal J Kowalewski