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ARC PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Ecoplexity

last updated on Thu, 10/23/2008 - 10:41

Contents
  1. General Information

    1. Description

    2. Purpose and goal of the project
    3. Client contact
    4. Personnel
  2. Scope and Scale
    1. Customer

    2. Users/ audience
    3. Scope
    4. Partners
  3. Architecture / Design
    1. Project Specification

    2. Requirements
    3. Project home and resource storage
    4. Related projects

  4. Project status
    1. Timeline

General Information

Description

The "Teaching Ecological Complexity" program (TEC) trains high-school teachers in ways to bring science inquiry into classrooms. It was formerly called "Teachers in the Woods" but is expanding with new funding from the National Science Foundation.

Purpose and goal of the project

Given the large scope of the program, TEC needs a more effective way to organize materials and resources for the teachers in the program. The web site ARC is building is intended to provide a means of posting and connecting a wide variety of content, as well as provide a means for teachers to easily find and use relevant content and resources

Client contact

Marion Dresner (Center for Science Education faculty): dresnem@pdx.edu, 503-725-5961 (PSU)
Andrew Moldeneke (OSU faculty): moldenka@science.oregonstate.edu, 541-737-5496
Claire Steiner (Marion's graduate assistant): csteiner@pdx.edu, 503-725-5961

Personnel

Josh Caplan - Project plan, R code, and misc. Drupal work
Cris Holm - Drupal programming
Morgan Harvey - R bridge and Drupal programming

Scope and Scale

Customer

Ecoplexity (a program based in the Center for Science Education at Portland State University)

Users/ audience

Primarily high-school teachers (and sometimes their students).
Secondarily, the TEC project leaders who will use the interface to add content to the site.

Scope

The site we create will be used in many locations within the US, and more.

Partners

Oregon State University
HJ Andrews Experimental Forest (Oregon)
Other ecological research stations throughout the US, and in Puerto Rico

Architecture/Design

Project Specification

Academic & Research Computing (ARC) has been asked to develop a content management system (CMS) for the Teaching Ecological Complexity website and a number of specific tools for this site. In addition, ARC will transition the existing site to the new system and train project staff in how to use and manage the new CMS.

Content management system – we will use an existing opensource Content Management System for this site, most likely 'Drupal', which is currently being implemented as the CMS for the university. This will require extensive customization and the development of additional modules to meet the needs of this project. Under this framework, the website will have the following capabilities and features:

  1. A means of storing and accessing the library of resources (e.g., research guides, protocols, examples, data analysis tools)
  2. There will be at least three levels of access to the site:
    1. Administrator – will be able to alter the structure and makeup of the site itself, create/delete content manager accounts, view summary information on how the site gets used, and everything below.
    2. Content managers – will be able to add/edit/remove content in the libraries, and everything below.
    3. Users – will be able to view content and save sessions (filter settings, language preference).
  3. English and Spanish versions will both be possible (though ARC will only add English content)
  4. Gather information on how the site is used (e.g., what parts of the site are used most often)

Visual design implementation – we will apply the site “look and feel��? supplied to us to the new version of the site, including graphics, style sheets, menu layout, etc. This will have to be adapted to work within the CMS. Navigation options – we will develop the site such that there are two possibilities for navigation:

  1. An organic version in which pages/pieces of content are shown in the context of (and linked to) related material. “Related��? material will be specified by the final versions of the ecological concept map and the inquiry steps map.
  2. A linear version in which users can navigate directly to pages/pieces of content via a site map or drop-down menu system.

    3. Existing content – we will work with project staff in moving existing content into the new site. This will include training them in how to manage the system and migrate content, including navigation and migrating content. ARC will not provide original content, and the production of such will not be the responsibility of ARC.

    Data calculators – we will create tools for data analysis with an interface for uploading data. The tools will be powered by R and will include:

    • Diversity calculator: richness, evenness, Simpson & Shannon indices
    • Rank/abundance plot generator
    • Correlation calculator
    • Dominance calculator
    • Calculator for comparing means: T-test, ANOVA
    • Community similarity calculator (e.g., Sorenson)

    We will also generate material to help users with the calculators as follows:

    1. Help for determining which analyses to perform
    2. Help in interpreting results
    3. Templates / example data sets

    Requirements

    1) Drupal - a PHP and MySQL based content management system
    2) R - an open source data analysis package
    3) R-PHP - a bridge that communicates with R using PHP code

    Project home and resource storage

    Development site (on Research): http://www.ecoplexity.org
    The beginning of a defunct TEC homepage: http://tiw.research.pdx.edu/original
    The mockup Josh and Ryan created: http://tiw.research.pdx.edu/mockup

    Related Projects

    Project status

    Timeline

    Beta version released 12/15/06
    Final version 3/15/07
    Project deadline 4/1/07