The expedition log
All Missions
Thirteen missions, one watershed. Missions unlock in order — each one depends on data and skills from the last.
- 00
Becoming a Researcher
Meet the Bluewater Basin watershed and the research team. Learn how scientists actually ask questions, form hypotheses, and avoid fooling themselves.
Scientific Thinking · Basin Field Station · ~45 min
- 01
Understanding the Landscape
Read the land like a scientist: elevation, slope, watersheds, and land cover. Build your first map of Bluewater Basin.
GIS & Remote Sensing · Ridge Overlook · ~60 min
- 02
Collecting Environmental Data
Design a sampling plan for rainfall, groundwater, and water quality stations without introducing bias.
Research Design · Rain Gauge Network · ~55 min
- 03
Cleaning Scientific Data
Real sensors fail, drift, and lie. Learn to detect outliers, handle missing values, and document every decision.
Data Science · Data Lab · ~60 min
- 04
Exploring Patterns
Before you model anything, look at it. Distributions, correlations, and the plots that reveal what the basin is doing.
Exploratory Data Analysis · Field Notebook · ~50 min
- 05
Scientific Statistics
Hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, and p-values — grounded in whether Bluewater Basin's water quality is really changing.
Statistics · Water Quality Lab · ~70 min
- 06
Regression & Prediction
Predict streamflow from rainfall. Linear regression, model diagnostics, and why R² can lie to you.
Statistical Modelling · Streamflow Gauge · ~75 min
- 07
Machine Learning
Random forests and cross-validation to predict flood risk across the basin from terrain and rainfall features.
Machine Learning · Flood Risk War Room · ~80 min
- 08
Spatial Analysis & GIS
Kriging, variograms, and spatial autocorrelation to map groundwater contamination between monitoring wells.
Geostatistics · Groundwater Monitoring Grid · ~80 min
- 09
Physics-Informed AI
Blend Darcy's Law with neural networks so predictions never violate the physics of groundwater flow.
Physics-Informed ML · Aquifer Simulation Lab · ~85 min
- 10
Quantifying Uncertainty
Every model is wrong to some degree — learn to say precisely how much, with Bayesian credible intervals and ensembles.
Bayesian Statistics · Uncertainty Chamber · ~75 min
- 11
Scientific Communication
Turn your analysis into a figure and a paragraph that a policymaker, and a peer reviewer, can both trust.
Scientific Writing · Communications Studio · ~55 min
- 12
Publishing Your Research
Package your Bluewater Basin investigation as a reproducible, open, citable piece of research.
Open Science · Basin Field Station — Archive Room · ~50 min