Welcome to the Data Zone! Browse the data collections listed below for real scientific data to use in your curriculum. If you have a good idea for ways to incorporate data from these collections or others you are aware of but you lack the resources to develop your lessons, submit a proposal to our portal development team to collaborate on lesson development based on your data set.

The National Virtual Observatory Datascope

The National Virtual Observatory (NVO) DataScope is a discovery agent and browser that allows astronomers to easily discover information available on a given source and location. A user needs to merely enter the name or position of interest, and the DataScope goes out and queries available resources to discover what is known about the source. Interface is very non-intuitive, difficult to manage, even with online help.

The EarthRef Digital Archive

EarthRef Digital Archive is a database of resources for earth science research and education. Includes media of all types. EarthFref includes nine separate Earth Science databases of all media types and all grade levels including reference databases.

Schoolyard LTER

The Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network is a collaborative effort involving more than 1800 scientists and students investigating ecological processes over long temporal and broad spatial scales. The Network promotes synthesis and comparative research across sites and ecosystems and among other related national and international research programs. The National Science Foundation established the LTER program in 1980 to support research on long-term ecological phenomena in the United States. The 26 LTER Sites represent diverse ecosystems and research emphases The LTER Network Office coordinates communication, network publications, and research-planning activities.

Schoolyard LTER Education is integral to the LTER Mission, and LTER has begun a broad-scale, long-term effort to combine scientific research and science education.

The Protein Data Bank

The single international repository for the processing and distribution of experimentally determined three-dimensional macromolecular structure data. The PDB is managed by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and the San Diego Supercomputer Center at the University of California, San Diego. International participants in data deposition and processing include the European Bioinformatics Institute Macromolecular Structure Database group (UK) and the Institute for Protein Research at Osaka University (Japan). There is also a worldwide network of distribution sites as listed at http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/mirrors.html.

The Climate Timeline Information Tool

Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN)

The Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN) is a National Institutes of Health initiative that fosters distributed collaborations in biomedical science by utilizing information technology innovations. Currently the BIRN involves a consortium of 19 universities and 26 research groups that participate in one or more of three test bed projects centered around brain imaging of human neurological disorders and associated animal models.

Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES)

NEES is a shared national network of 15 experimental facilities, collaborative tools, a centralized data repository, and earthquake simulation software, all linked by the ultra-high-speed Internet2 connections of NEESgrid. Together, these resources provide the means for collaboration and discovery in the form of more advanced research based on experimentation and computational simulations of the ways buildings, bridges, utility systems, coastal regions, and geomaterials perform during seismic events.

The Geosciences Network (GEON)

GEON is developing the cyberinfrastructure for integrating data sets, software tools, visualization applications, and a variety of applications across Earth Science disciplines to enable new interdisciplinary research in the geosciences.

National Space Science Data Center

The National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) maintains a huge amount of space science data. The NSSDC supports the space science research community, the education enterprise, and the general public.

NSSDC archives more than 36.6 TB of digital data from about 440 mostly-NASA space science spacecraft, of which the most important 3 TB are electronically accessible. NSSDC also has a large collection of film products. Here, "space science" means astronomy and astrophysics, solar and space plasma physics, and lunar and planetary science.

National Geophysical Data Center

The National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) provides scientific stewardship, products, and services for geophysical data from the Sun to the Earth and Earth's sea floor and solid earth environment, including Earth observations from space. The NGDC is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Related educational resources include the Climate Timeline Tool.

The National Atlas

(from the National Atlas web site) Maps of America are what you'll find and make on nationalatlas.gov. Maps of innovation and vision that illustrate our changing Nation. Maps that capture and depict the patterns, conditions, and trends of American life. Maps that supplement interesting articles. Maps that tell their own stories. Maps that cover all of the United States or just your area of interest. Maps that are accurate and reliable from more than 20 Federal organizations. Maps about America's people, heritage, and resources. Maps that will help you, your children, your colleagues, and your friends understand the United States and its place in the world.

The Quantitative Environmental Learning Project (QELP)

QELP provides resources to integrate math and environmental science in college classrooms. It features real-world environmental science data and links to related resources that are perfect for K-16 educators to provide anchored instruction and inquiry-based learning for their students.

US Census Bureau

The Census Bureau serves as the leading source of quality data about the nation's people and economy. The bureau honors privacy, protects confidentiality, shares expertise globally, and conducts their work openly.

Additional Collections

You may also find useful curriculum resources focusing on data by searching the following collections:

SDSC Data Central
National Science Digital Library
Computational Science Education Reference Desk
Multimedia Educational Repository for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT)