InTeGrate Modules and Courses >Coastal Processes, Hazards and Society > Student Materials > University Park: Blended > Detailed Step-by-Step Instructions > Step 1: Use the PSMSL visual data explorer tool to locate your sites.
InTeGrate's Earth-focused Modules and Courses for the Undergraduate Classroom
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These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate. The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues. The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including: general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science, social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs.
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These student materials complement the Coastal Processes, Hazards and Society Instructor Materials. If you would like your students to have access to the student materials, we suggest you either point them at the Student Version which omits the framing pages with information designed for faculty (and this box). Or you can download these pages in several formats that you can include in your course website or local Learning Managment System. Learn more about using, modifying, and sharing InTeGrate teaching materials.

Step 1: Use the PSMSL visual data explorer tool to locate your sites.

An example of the interface is shown in Figure 4.40. Here we have selected Balboa, a site near the Panama Canal. This site has data from 1908 to 2012 and is nearly 99.4% complete. This is an excellent dataset and would be a great candidate for selection due to this completeness.

  1. To quickly see the data visually, click on the "Plots" tab next to Metadata. This will bring up two plots one for monthly and one for annual means. In this example, only one year, 1987 is missing. Why? What happened in Panama in 1987 that may have interrupted data collection? In 1987, political corruption led to unrest which ultimately required the use of force by the U.S. to help the country return to stability, after which the tide station at Balboa was able to get back online and continue its monitoring mission.
  2. Once you are convinced that your dataset is useful, you need to download it. There are several ways to do this, but the easiest is to click on the "Other Information" tab and then click on "Documentation" under Station Information. A new page should open that would look something like the image in Figure 4.41. You will recognize the Tide Gauge Data plots below the Station Information section.
  3. At this point, it is recommended that you click on the tide gauge plots and download the actual plots in .png image format so that you have these as models to use for plotting up the raw data in Excel. See the Excel file that we provided with your first site (Victoria, British Columbia). You will download the data for two additional sites into this document. Make sure you name the plots when you save them so you know what plot belongs to what site. You will have a couple of these for each location so keep organized from the start.

These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate. The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues. The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including: general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science, social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs.
Explore the Collection »