ED13E-0747 1340h
Writing and Visualization for Teaching Plate Tectonics
The Theory of Plate Tectonics is probably the most important paradigm for understanding the workings of our planet. As such it is an integral part in any Introductory Geology course. Whereas geology majors usually easily embrace the Theory of Plate Tectonics, the enthusiasm for the coherence and elegance of this theory appears to be much more subdued among the majority of non-science majors. While visual and electronic media certainly support the teaching of the theory, pretty pictures and animations are not sufficient for many non-science majors to grasp the concepts of interacting lithospheric plates. It is well known that students do better in learning scientific concepts if they create their own understanding through research and inquiry-based learning, by working in the field, manipulating real earth-science data, and through writing. Writing assignments give instructors the opportunity to assess their students' learning and to clarify misconceptions yet they also have to be willing to teach students how to craft a science paper. Most electronic media and textbook-added CD-ROMs are not useful for making the structure of a science paper transparent. I found many of the necessary ingredients for effectively teaching plate tectonics in the interactive CD-ROM, "Our Dynamic Planet", developed by Wm. Prothero together with G. Kelly (University of California at Santa Barbara). It allows students to select and manipulate real earth-science data of plate-tectonically active regions, and provides an electronic interface that lets students create graphical representations of their collected data. A downloadable Teacher's Manual provides suggestions on teaching students to write a scientific argument, rooted in sound pedagogy. Originally designed for a large oceanography class, the material was modified for use in a small introductory geology class for non-science majors. Various assignments were given to instruct students in writing a scientific argument based on their own collected data and observations. The main goals are for students o To see the relationship between data and the development of a scientific theory o To understand the elements of scientific discourse o To learn how to derive conclusions from interpretations and observations o To back interpretations with observations o To be able to write a scientific argument o To understand the Theory of Plate Tectonics, and o To gain a better understanding about how science works The results of several surveys will be presented that confirm that most of the expected outcomes continue to be met.
http://oceanography.geol.ucsb.edu/ODP_Advert/odp_onepage.htm
ED13E-0748 1340h
Multiple views of the October 2003 Cedar Fires captured by the High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network
Late October 2003 brought devastating fires to the entire Southern California region. The NSF-funded High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network (HPWREN - http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/) cameras captured the development and progress of the Cedar fire in San Diego County. Cameras on Mt. Laguna, Mt. Woodson, Ramona Airport, and North Peak, recording one frame every 12 seconds, allowed for a time-lapse composite showing the fire's formation and progress from its beginnings on October 26th, to October 30th. The time-lapse camera footage depicts gushing smoke formations during the day, and bright orange walls of fire at night. The final video includes time synchronized views from multiple cameras, and an animated map highlighting the progress of the fire over time, and a directional indicator for each of the displaying cameras. The video is narrated by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Fire Captain Ron Serabia (retd.) who was working then as a Air Tactical Group Supervisor with the aerial assault on the Cedar Fire Sunday October 26, 2004. The movie will be made available for download from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Visualization Center Visual Objects library (supported by the OptIPuter project) at http://www.siovizcenter.ucsd.edu.
http://www.siovizcenter.ucsd.edu
ED13E-0749 1340h
Packaging a successful NASA mission to reach a large audience within a small budget.The development of unique visualizations in support of Solar-Terrestrial Physics & NASA's Polar Mission
To showcase the on-going and wide-ranging scope of the Polar science discoveries, the Polar science team has created a one-stop shop for a thorough introduction to geospace physics, in the form of a DVD with supporting website. The DVD, Earth's Dynamic Space: Solar-Terrestrial Physics & NASA's Polar Mission, can be viewed as an end-to-end product or split into individual segments and tailored to lesson plans. As part of this project a number of unique animations using data from all three cameras on the spacecraft were produced. The three different spectral bands, visible, ultra-violet, and X-ray, that the cameras operate in show the spectacular features of the Earths Aurora. The three instrument data sets all had very different properties and required special software to be developed to produce the visualizations.
ED13E-0750 1340h
Voyager Interactive Web Interface to EarthScope
Visualization of data is essential in helping scientists and students develop a conceptual understanding of relationships among many complex types of data and keep track of large amounts of information. Developed initially by UNAVCO for study of global-scale geodynamic processes, the Voyager map visualization tools have evolved into interactive, web-based map utilities that can make scientific results accessible to a large number and variety of educators and students as well as the originally targeted scientists. A portal to these map tools can be found at: http://jules.unavco.org. The Voyager tools provide on-line interactive data visualization through pre-determined map regions via a simple HTML/JavaScript interface (for large numbers of students using the tools simultaneously) or through student-selectable areas using a Java interface to a Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) engine. Students can access a variety of maps, satellite images, and geophysical data at a range of spatial scales for the earth and other planets of the solar system. Students can also choose from a variety of base maps (satellite mosaics, global topography, geoid, sea-floor age, strain rate and seismic hazard maps, and others) and can then add a number of geographic and geophysical overlays, for example coastlines, political boundaries, rivers and lakes, earthquake and volcano locations, stress axes, and observed and model plate motion, as well as deformation velocity vectors representing a compilation of over 5000 geodetic measurements from around the world. The related educational website, "Exploring our Dynamic Planet", (http://www.dpc.ucar.edu/VoyagerJr/jvvjrtool.html) incorporates background materials and curricular activities that encourage students to explore Earth processes. One of the present curricular modules is designed for high school students or introductory-level undergraduate non-science majors. The purpose of the module is for students to examine real data to investigate how plate tectonic processes are reflected in observed geophysical phenomena. Constructing maps by controlling map parameters and answering open-ended questions which describe, compare relationships, and work with both observed and model data, promote conceptual understanding of plate tectonics and related processes. The goals of curricular development emphasize inquiry, development of critical thinking skills, and student-centered interests. Custom editions of the map utility have been made as the "Jules Verne Voyager" and "Voyager Junior", for the International Lithosphere Project's "Global Strain Rate Map", and for EarthScope Education and Outreach as "EarthScope Voyager Jr.". For the latter, a number of EarthScope-specific features have been added, including locations of proposed USArray (seismic), Plate Boundary Observatory (geodetic), and San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth sites, plus detailed maps and geographically referenced examples of EarthScope-related scientific investigations. As EarthScope develops, maps will be updated in `real time' so that students of all ages can use the data in formal and informal educational settings.
http://jules.unavco.org
ED13E-0751 1340h
Field-based Information Technology in Geology Education: GeoPads
During the past two summers, we have successfully incorporated a field-based information technology component into our senior-level, field geology course (GS-440) at the University of Michigan's Camp Davis Geology Field Station, near Jackson, WY. Using GeoPads -- rugged TabletPCs equipped with electronic notebook software, GIS, GPS, and wireless networking -- we have significantly enhanced our field mapping exercises and field trips. While fully retaining the traditional approaches and advantages of field instruction, GeoPads offer important benefits in the development of students' spatial reasoning skills. GeoPads enable students to record observations and directly create geologic maps in the field, using a combination of an electronic field notebook (Microsoft OneNote) tightly integrated with pen-enabled GIS software (ArcGIS-ArcMap). Specifically, this arrangement permits students to analyze and manipulate their data in multiple contexts and representations -- while still in the field -- using both traditional 2-D map views, as well as richer 3-D contexts. Such enhancements provide students with powerful exploratory tools that aid the development of spatial reasoning skills, allowing more intuitive interactions with 2-D representations of our 3-D world. Additionally, field-based GIS mapping enables better error-detection, through immediate interaction with current observations in the context of both supporting data (e.g., topographic maps, aerial photos, magnetic surveys) and students' ongoing observations. The overall field-based IT approach also provides students with experience using tools that are increasingly relevant to their future academic or professional careers.
http://geopad.org
ED13E-0752 1340h
Changing Attitudes and Assessments When Working With Maps: Use of Anaglyph Maps in the Classroom
Anaglyph maps provide a low cost, easy way to present mapped data as a three-dimensional surface in Earth Science classrooms, but to date there has been relatively little evaluation of this technology's impact on students and student learning. In our extensive testing of the maps, in undergraduate and secondary classrooms, as well as in controlled studies, the maps' major strengths appear to fall in two areas. Anaglyph maps greatly reduce the amount of classroom time necessary to prepare students for map interpretation, allowing classes to spend more time on map content, rather than on map interpretation. Anaglyph maps also dramatically improve students' attitudes about working with maps. On those two fronts alone, anaglyph maps can be a priceless resource from an instructional viewpoint. It is more difficult to determine the impact of anaglyph maps on student learning however. Controlled studies of individual students using a variety of map types suggest some increases in student understanding and retention of mapped data, but the gains are relatively small. A significant problem is that the use of anaglyph maps completely changes what can, and should, be used as assessment measures. Our evaluation instruments simply have not kept pace with changing technology. Instead of questions such as "How high?" or "How steep?", we need to ask "How come?, How did the present landscape come to be?". These types of questions used to be considered a higher level of understanding that wasn't addressed by traditional assessment of map reading skills, but with anaglyph maps these questions move to the foreground. We are continuing to work on developing better assessment instruments to measure the impact of anaglyph maps on student learning, but even in the pilot studies completed, one thing is clear. Anaglyph maps are dramatically more effective at engaging students and improving their attitude about working with maps, and in secondary classrooms and general requirement undergraduate courses, these are pivotal steps. This work is sponsored in part by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education and the STC program of the National Science Foundation via the National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics under the agreement Number EAR- 0120914.
ED13E-0753 1340h
Constructing Artificial Rock Outcrops as Tools for Fostering Earth and Environmental Science Thinking
The Earth and Environmental Science Education Group at the University of New Orleans has created an innovative visualization teaching tool. Through funding made available by the National Science Foundation a 12'x10'x5' artificial rock outcrop was fabricated at the University of New Orleans. An accompanying curriculum, which includes a series of artificial rock outcrop labs, was also created for the outcrop. The labs incorporated fundamental concepts from the geosciences and the field of science education. The overarching philosophy behind the unity of the content knowledge and the pedagogy was to develop a more inclusive and deliberate teaching approach that utilized strategies known to enhance student learning in the sciences. The artificial outcrop lab series emphasized the following geoscience topics: relative dating, rock movement, and depositional environments. The series also integrated pedagogical ideas such as inquiry-based learning, conceptual mapping, constructivist teaching, pattern recognition, and contextualized knowledge development. Each component of the curriculum was purposefully designed to address what the body of research in science education reveals as critical to science teaching and learning. After developing the artificial rock outcrop curriculum a pilot study was done with 40 pre-service elementary education undergraduates. In the pilot study students completed the following assessments: three outcrop labs, journal reflections for each lab, pre/post attitude surveys, group video-recordings, and preconception and final interviews. Data from these assessments were analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The following conclusions were revealed from the data: student's attitudes towards learning earth science increased after working with the artificial rock outcrop, students conceptual understanding of the concepts were clearer after working with the outcrop, students were able to answer multifaceted, higher order questions as a result of working with the outcrop, and students confidence in their abilities to think scientifically improved after their experience with the outcrop. The artificial rock outcrop has consequently been incorporated into several courses that have large enrollments from the following student populations: pre-service elementary education majors, undergraduate non-science majors, geology majors, and in-service MAST (Masters of Art in Science Teaching) students. Approximately, 1300 college students and 500 students in the 4th-12th grade levels from the local metropolitan school area work with the artificial rock outcrop annually. The artificial rock outcrop curriculum was a much-needed teaching tool in New Orleans considering the absence of natural rock outcrops along the entire coastal plain province.
ED13E-0754 1340h
ReefGrow v2.0: A classroom tool for visualizing the processes controlling coral reef development and demise
Understanding the complex interplay between coral reef growth, sea-level variations and tectonics is a major challenge in paleoclimate research. A continuing challenge for students is how to visualize the complex interplay of different geological processes through time. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) has developed ReefGrow v2.0, a Java-based program that numerically models and displays coral reef growth in 2D. The program was developed initially as a research tool but has educational applications as well. Based on straightforward mathematical algorithms, ReefGrow v2.0, realistically "grows" reefs in response to different variables (including subsidence or uplift rate, coral growth rate, sedimentation rate, dissolution rate when the reef is subaerially exposed). The program can import a bathymetric profile to use as the substrate, can import different sea level curves, and can vary the subsidence, or uplift, rates as a function of distance from the shoreline. A major strength of ReefGrow v2.0 is its simple graphical interface, allowing variables to be changed and their impacts on reef development readily assessed. Students are able to view the models' output in the form of a dynamic 2D cross section that steps forward or back through time. To illustrate its use, we applied ReefGrow v2.0 to a "real world" situation using published data from drowned fossil coral reefs that grew on the subsiding flanks of Hawaii over the last 500 ka. ReefGrow v.2.0 was able to realistically model the number and morphology of the reef terraces. The models can be used to constrain the timing of coral reef drowning, the rate and shape of island subsidence, the timing of subaerial exposure of each reef, and the rate of coral growth required to mimic the morphology of the reef. The cross section shows the internal structure of the reef. The program can also be used to forward model reef growth in response to future climate change that causes sea-level rise, or decreased growth rates related to higher sea surface temperatures. ReefGrow v2.0 and accompanying information is accessible through the MBARI web pages at: http://www.mbari.org/volcanism/Hawaii/HR-ReefGrow.htm
http://www.mbari.org/volcanism/Hawaii/HR-ReefGrow.htm
ED13E-0755 1340h
Teaching Biostratigraphy Using Real Cores and IODP Data: The use of Information Technology on Spatial Visualization Skills, Motivation and Transfer of Undergraduate Science Majors
We have developed a problem-solving lab exercise using real IODP data and graphic correlation to address planktonic community change at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary. This stratigraphic interval represents a time of dramatic global cooling, but the change is expressed in different ways and to different degrees at different locations in the world's oceans. The question the students are asked to address is whether observed changes in taxonomic composition across the Eocene-Oligocene boundary are global or local responses to changes in oceanic and atmospheric circulation. First, students were introduced to graphic correlation, a quantitative biostratigraphic technique that incorporates data from many local sections into a composite reference section. Second, students were taken to the core repository of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program on the campus of Texas A&M University to examine the Eocene-Oligocene boundary in a series of cores from the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Some cores show virtually no lithological change at the boundary, whereas others show dramatic changes in rock type. Finally, students were asked to download biostratigraphic data from the IODP on-line Janus database from the same cores that they had measured and use them to create a composite global reference section. Using their own observations of the cores, the results of their graphic correlation of the real data, and additional information they were provided by IODP scientists during their field trip to the repository, students addressed the global versus local nature of biotic change at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary. Evaluation of spatial skills and motivation were performed pre and post lab. An additional post lab exercise measured student ability to transfer conceptual knowledge. Evaluations from students will assess the effectiveness of this exercise and reflect the value of integrating technology in geoscience curriculum.
ED13E-0756 1340h
ASSESSING CORE COMPETENCIES
Catherine Palomba and Trudy Banta offer the following definition of assessment, adapted from one provided by Marches in 1987. Assessment in the systematic collection, review, and use of information about educational programs undertaken for the purpose of improving student learning and development. (Palomba and Banta 1999). It is widely recognized that sophisticated computing technologies are becoming a key element in today's classroom instructional techniques. Regardless, the Professor must be held responsible for creating an instructional environment in which the technology actually supplements learning outcomes of the students. Almost all academic disciplines have found a niche for computer-based instruction in their respective professional domain. In many cases, it is viewed as an essential and integral part of the educational process. Educational institutions are committing substantial resources to the establishment of dedicated technology-based laboratories, so that they will be able to accommodate and fulfill students' desire to master certain of these specific skills. This type of technology-based instruction may raise some fundamental questions about the core competencies of the student learner. Some of the most important questions are : 1. Is the utilization of these fast high-powered computers and user-friendly software programs creating a totally non-challenging instructional environment for the student learner ? 2. Can technology itself all too easily overshadow the learning outcomes intended ? 3. Are the educational institutions simply training students how to use technology rather than educating them in the appropriate field ? 4. Are we still teaching content-driven courses and analysis oriented subject matter ? 5. Are these sophisticated modern era technologies contributing to a decline in the Critical Thinking Capabilities of the 21st century technology-savvy students ? The author tries to focus on technology as a tool and not on the technology itself. He further argues that students must demonstrate that they have the have the ability to think critically before they make an attempt to use technology in a chosen application-specific environment. The author further argues that training-based instruction has a very narrow focus that puts modern technology at the forefront of the learning enterprise system. The author promotes education-oriented strategies to provide the students with a broader perspective of the subject matter. The author is also of the opinion that students entering the workplace should clearly understand the context in which modern technologies are influencing the productive outcomes of the industrialized world. References : Marchese, T. J. (1987). Third Down, Ten Years to go. AAHE Bulletin, Vol. 40, pages 3-8. Marchese, T. J. (1994). Assessment, Quality and Undergraduate Improvement. Assessment Update, Vol. 6, No. 3. pages 1-14. Montagu, A. S. (2001). High-technology instruction: A framework for teaching computer-based technologies. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 12 (1), 109-128. Palomba, Catherine A. and Banta, Trudy W.(1999). Assessment Essentials :Planning, Implementing and Improving Assessment in Higher Education. San Francisco : Jossey Bass Publishers.
ED13E-0757 1340h
Dive and Explore: An Interactive Web Visualization that Simulates Making an ROV Dive to an Active Submarine Volcano
Several years ago we created an exciting and engaging multimedia exhibit for the Hatfield Marine Science Center that lets visitors simulate making a dive to the seafloor with the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) named ROPOS. The exhibit immerses the user in an interactive experience that is naturally fun but also educational. The public display is located at the Hatfield Marine Science Visitor Center in Newport, Oregon. We are now completing a revision to the project that will make this engaging virtual exploration accessible to a much larger audience. With minor modifications we will be able to put the exhibit onto the world wide web so that any person with internet access can view and learn about exciting volcanic and hydrothermal activity at Axial Seamount on the Juan de Fuca Ridge. The modifications address some cosmetic and logistic ISSUES confronted in the museum environment, but will mainly involve compressing video clips so they can be delivered more efficiently over the internet. The web version, like the museum version, will allow users to choose from 1 of 3 different dives sites in the caldera of Axial Volcano. The dives are based on real seafloor settings at Axial seamount, an active submarine volcano on the Juan de Fuca Ridge (NE Pacific) that is also the location of a seafloor observatory called NeMO. Once a dive is chosen, then the user watches ROPOS being deployed and then arrives into a 3-D computer-generated seafloor environment that is based on the real world but is easier to visualize and navigate. Once on the bottom, the user is placed within a 360 degree panorama and can look in all directions by manipulating the computer mouse. By clicking on markers embedded in the scene, the user can then either move to other panorama locations via movies that travel through the 3-D virtual environment, or they can play video clips from actual ROPOS dives specifically related to that scene. Audio accompanying the video clips informs the user where they are going or what they are looking at. After the user is finished exploring the dive site they end the dive by leaving the bottom and watching the ROV being recovered onto the ship at the surface. Within the three simulated dives there are a total of 6 arrival and departure movies, 7 seafloor panoramas, 12 travel movies, and 23 ROPOS video clips. This virtual exploration is part of the NeMO web site and will be at this URL http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/dive.html
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/dive.html
ED13E-0758 1340h
Golfing with protons: using research grade simulation algorithms for online games
Scientists have long known the power of simulations. By modeling a system in a computer, researchers can experiment at will, developing an intuitive sense of how a system behaves. The rapid increase in the power of personal computers, combined with technologies such as Flash, Shockwave and Java, allow us to bring research simulations into the education world by creating exploratory environments for the public. This approach is illustrated by a project funded by a small grant from NSF's Informal Science Education program, through an opportunity that provides education supplements to existing research awards. Using techniques adapted from a magnetospheric research program, several Flash based interactives have been developed that allow web site visitors to explore the motion of particles in the Earth's magnetosphere. These pieces were folded into a larger Space Weather Center web project at the Space Science Institute (www.spaceweathercenter.org). Rather than presenting these interactives as plasma simulations per se, the research algorithms were used to create games such as "Magneto Mini Golf", where the balls are protons moving in combined electric and magnetic fields. The "holes" increase in complexity, beginning with no fields and progressing towards a simple model of Earth's magnetosphere. The emphasis of the activity is gameplay, but because it is at its core a plasma simulation, the user develops an intuitive sense of charged particle motion as they progress. Meanwhile, the pieces contain embedded assessments that are measurable through a database driven tracking system. Mining that database not only provides helpful usability information, but allows us to examine whether users are meeting the learning goals of the activities. We will discuss the development and evaluation results of the project, as well as the potential for these types of activities to shift the expectations of what a web site can and should provide educationally.
http://www.spaceweathercenter.org/
ED13E-0759 1340h
Compiling Web-Based Topical Pages for Teaching Geoscience With Visualizations
The effective use of visualizations is one of the most important aspects of teaching university-level geoscience. Today, there is a rich array of visualizations available on-line that can be integrated into lectures, class activities, and lab exercises. However, when a teacher conducts a web-based search on a topic, the search result is often overload of material with little selectivity. At the Science Education Resource Center (SERC) located at Carleton College, we have begun to address this problem within the larger context of a NAGT "On the Cutting Edge" workshop. Entitled "Teaching Geoscience with Visualizations" this workshop met at Carleton College in February 2004. The workshop website can be accessed at http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/visualize04/index.html In cooperation with participants of the workshop, we are growing a number of different types of on-line collections, including topical collections. These "Topical Pages" are collections of web-based visualizations, suitable for use in a class or lab, which are grouped together based on a specific geoscience topic. An important aspect of these topical collections is the effort given to making the collections: 1.) integrated from subtopic to subtopic, 2.) a selective gathering of effective visualizations, and 3.) representative of the diversity of material available on each topic. The topical page collections which we have created at SERC are more than just a gathering of related visualizations. Each entry includes a brief, instructive caption describing the nature of the visualizations contained and the specific ideas that are graphically represented by the visualization. In addition, most collections contain links not only to the website source of the visualizations but also to the website of the creator of the visualization. The number and breadth of topical pages at the "Teaching with Visualizations" website continues to grow. Initial collections are available on topics such as Plate Tectonic Movements, Tides, Weather and Climate, Sequence Stratigraphy, Isostasy and Gravity, Paleoclimate, Sedimentation Models, River Systems, Radioactive Decay and Absolute Age Determinations, Mountain Uplift and Erosion, and Turbidite Development. We encourage the community to submit additional topics for collections, specific visualizations for inclusion within the collections, and to evaluate the collections using the forms found at the "Teaching with Visualizations" website.
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/visualize04/index.html