BRS: Lisa D. White "Integrating field and fossil data with visualization tools to enhance instruction in biodiversity, Earth system processes, and global climate change"

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Lisa D. White, Director of Education, Museum of Paleontology, University of California at Berkeley

The extensive fossil holdings and significant online resources at the University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) are accessible through educational websites, databases, specimen photographs, and digital archival materials. Two award-winning UCMP websites, Understanding Evolution and Understanding Science, provide novel ways to engage undergraduates in how evolution and the nature and process of science work. As UCMP continues to expand online resources, including virtual field experiences of unique fossil sites supported by digitally integrated gigapixel-resolution images, we are launching a new instructional resource, Understanding Global Change. The new website provides rich visualizations on an interactive canvas that can be used to map and model global change phenomena and the drivers of biodiversity in deep time.