Open Science

Transparency | Accessibility | Outreach

Science should be transparent and accessible to all, but 17% of scientific data ‘disappears’ per year due to inadequate data archiving. We actively participate in the Open Science movement through multiple avenues:

• Open Software, Data, and Code:
  • Sam’s GitHub including all ongoing projects.
  • Active in the ethics of data sharing and led a collaborative effort to outline best practices for ‘Balancing Open Science and Data Privacy in the Water Sciences’.
  • streamDepletr R package, containing tools for streamflow depletion modeling.
  • High Resolution Mapping of EvapoTranspiration (HRMET) surface energy balance model for R and MATLAB.
  • Co-curator of CRAN Hydrology Task View synthesizing water-related R packages. Contribute via GitHub here!
  • Open Science Framework including code and data for publications.
  • Community and institutional repositories for project-specific data.
• No Paywalls:
  • Pre-prints of all manuscripts to EarthArXiv.
  • Publish in open-access venues when funding permits.
• Accessibility:
  • Providing captions for all video content
  • Using colorblind-friendly palettes on slides and figures
  • Formatting manuscripts for text-to-voice compatibility.
• Outreach:
  • Certified Carpentries Instructor and have taught several workshops.
  • Blogger for AGU/EGU Water Underground blog.
  • Actively engaged on scientific Twitter.
  • Run the AGU Ecohydrology Technical Committee social media accounts.

What more can I do? I am always looking for ways to improve… Tweet @ZipperSam with ideas!

Teaching

I’ve had the privilege to teach at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels. From this diverse experience, I’ve developed a learner-focused teaching style underlain by three core principles:

1. Students learn best when materials connect to the things they care about.
2. Active student participation in the classroom is necessary to engage students.
3. Regular internal and external assessment is necessary in order to identify what material students are connecting with, and where they are struggling.

I use place-based teaching as the thread binding these three principles together. By using local examples, experiential field education, and real-world data, students build upon their sense of place to make connections between new material and their existing knowledge.

Courses Taught

• Hydrologic Data Visualization, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Tecnologias Ambientais, March 2023. Invited instructor of weeklong graduate intensive course. Developed and led course including lectures, assignments, and assessment. Enrollment = 10 students.
• Advanced Interdisciplinary Water Science: CUAHSI Virtual University, University of Kansas Department of Geology (GEOL791), Fall 2022. Instructor for graduate-level hydrology course at KU as part of CUAHSI Virtual University program. Administered 3-credit graduate course, including developing and leading 4-week module on Hydrologic Data Visualization taught to students at all participating universities. KU course enrollment = 11 students. Module enrollment = 27 students.
• Sustainable Water Resources, University of Victoria Department of Civil Engineering (CIVE340), Fall 2018. Instructor for core undergraduate water resource engineering course. Leading all lectures, in-class activities, homework assignments, and exams. Selected evaluation results (n=48):
  • ‘Overall, the instructor was effective in this course’: 60% Excellent, 35% Good.
  • ‘As a result of this course, my interest in the material…': 63% Increased.

Courses TA’ed

• Ecohydrology, University of Wisconsin (CEE619), Spring 2016. Developed new module on rainfall-runoff partitioning including student programming exercise simulating banded vegetation dynamics. Lectured on various topics in class and assisted with curriculum design.
• Ecohidrologia (Ecohydrology), Universidad Nacional de San Luis (Argentina), Spring 2015. Led student development of ecohydrological ‘bucket model’ in programming language R.

Other Teaching Experience

• Certified Carpentries Instructor since 2020. Lead instructor for Geospatial Analysis in R workshop. Helper for workshops on Introduction to R, Introduction to Git, and more.
• Guest lectures for courses at the University of Kansas, McGill University, University of Wisconsin-Baraboo, University of North Carolina, and University of Victoria.

Consulting Services

science, solutions, value

I work as a consultant on projects ranging from a handful of hours to multi-year collaborative projects. As an independent freelancer, I provide exceptional value to your project since my overhead costs are effectively zero - all you pay for is the time I spend doing science for you.

I’ve contributed to numerous projects, working with diverse groups including The Nature Conservancy, Foundry Spatial, Dairy Management Inc., and the Soil Health Institute.

My services include:

• strategic planning and fundraising
• project design
• data collection and analysis
• modeling and data science
• scientific and technical writing
• instruction and training

If you could benefit from any of these services, please send me an email and I’m happy to develop a scope of work that meets your needs and budget.