Vizualizing Earth

Learning How Students "See" Space-Age Imagery

Visualizations and remotely-sensed images, which provide local, regional and global views of environmental systems and their interactions, empower scientists to better understand our planet. These visualizations include satellite images, Space Shuttle and International Space Station photography, and geographic information systems (GIS) data. Such space-age resources also promise to revolutionize Earth science education by offering students the same powerful perspectives of the world.

Yet while these images can be spectacular, scientists train extensively to analyze and interpret them. How do students "read" imagery and visualizations? And how can educators present these resources so students can effectively make meaning of them? These are the questions addressed by Visualizing Earth, a cognitive research project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and developed and implemented by TERC, the University of California San Diego, Pennsylvania State University and San Diego State University.

Through a combination of classroom experiences, laboratory experiments and structured interviews, the project explored the cognitive underpinnings and implications of student use of geographic and space-orbit visualizations. It focused on such cognitive factors as symbolic representations of data, three-dimensional perspectives, scale, view-angle and change-over-time transformations. The curricular context for the research was plate tectonics for long-term change and weather for short-term change. The pedagogical strategy emphasized inquiry-based learning.

The Visualizing Earth project determined that visualizations and remotely-sensed images strongly interest students and enhance their learning of Earth science, although students need to learn how to "see" with these new resources in order to take full advantage of them.

1. Visualizations enable students to "see the unseeable" and better understand key science concepts.
   
   
2. In contrast to passively viewing images, students are far more engaged and learn more effectively when they can actively manipulate image and data displays and gain new perspectives.
   
   
3. Image analysis tools for classrooms can amplify learning with certain design features. When students can establish the view angle, for example, or calibrate distance, they better grasp the information inherent in images and visualizations.
   
   
4. Advanced visualization tools, when adapted to the cognitive needs of students, can make complex scientific concepts accessible and promote the building of scientific explanations.

Visualizing Earth offers educators a framework for integrating visualization resources into instructional materials and classroom education. When students work with visualizations as tools of inquiry, they can better understand key concepts in Earth science, develop skills of scientific thinking and problem solving and conduct their own investigations in Earth and its systems.

visualizingearth.ucsd.edu