Development of Interactive Visualization Modules for Use in Geoscience Education

KIRKBY 9809817 Visualization modules will be developed for use in introductory Earth Science courses, as lecture demonstrations, laboratory exercises, or individual tutorials. Each module will consist of several three-dimensional visualizations and electronic text that can easily be combined or separated to fill a variety of educational uses. Students and instructors will be able to interactively manipulate the visual components in three, and often four, dimensions. Modules will run on either MacIntosh or IBM-compatible personal computers, and can be downloaded over the Internet or distributed as CD-ROMs. By translating the modules into HTML format, they will run on public software and be immune to future changes in Internet operating systems. Three initial modules will be developed the first summer that will be disseminated and extensively tested during the academic year. Modules will be distributed to over 2000 students in introductory geoscience courses at the University of Minnesota and to instructors at other institutions. Modules will be revised on the basis of student and instructor evaluations during the second start. In addition, the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Minnesota will host a series of workshops the second summer with local elementary and secondary education teachers to develop module versions for pre-college levels. A proposed cooperative venture with Encyclopedia Britannica will make the modules immediately available to over half the nation's universities and colleges that are current subscribers to Encyclopedia Britannica On-line. Free access to the modules will be maintained through servers at the University of Minnesota, which will retain all proprietary rights to the modules, text and visualizations. These initial modules are a pilot program. The University of Minnesota has been a pioneering institute in using computer visualizations in geoscience research. It now will use this expertise to develop materials fo r geoscience education. This pilot program is designed to prove the technical feasibility of exporting, supporting, and disseminating the modules, and more importantly to determine how to maximize their potential use by extensive classroom testing. Additional funding will be pursued to move beyond this pilot program into a larger series of modules, to incorporate more faculty, expand the program across institutional lines, and involve more undergraduate research assistants in geoscience visualization. A series of workshops will be initiated to promote visualization use in geoscience education (elementary through graduate) and to facilitate visualization efforts between institutions.