Mohan, Don, Tim, Rajul, Bob, and Dan (photo) meet during the AMS meeting (1/2001) |
- Mar. 1-2, 2001 (Champaign -- tentative with Ken and Dan)
- Feb. 22-23, 2001 (Boulder -- tentative with Ken and Tim)
- January 24, 2001 (Phone)
- May 16-17, 2000 (Boulder)
- Feb. 3-4, 2000 (Phildephia)
- Nov. 22, 1999
May 16-17, 2000
Present: Dan Bramer, Katy Ginger, Ken Hay, Mary Marlino, Don Middleton, Rajul Pandya, Mohan Ramamurthy, Tim Scheitlin
Decisions:
- We will have “something cool to show” by December 2000 (for the AGU and AMS meetings).
- We will aim at something demonstrable on PIII, 700 MHz Intel/Windows system. This is what we expect will be in the 2000 dollar range around the end of the program.
- We will develop the visualization environment around Vis5D.
Although VisAD might provide a more long-term solution, its performance right now makes it a dog. Tim and Don are doing further comparisons.
Dan will recast his applets to operate in the windows environment and interface with vis5D
Made necessary by the decision to use Vid5D.
We will develop outlines for three distinct narratives and test them for student interest by the end of the summer.
We will develop idealized inquiry paths around La Nina and El Nino by the end of the summer.
The student activities will be anchored in the visualization environment; tutorials will be introduced as students being to apply the tools.
In the exploratorium students will:
- Investigate a phenomenon and discover a process using the visualization environment
- Learn abstract ideas (building blocks and fundamental principles) in the tutorials that accompany the tools
- Use the tools in the visualization environment to apply and develop the abstract ideas presented in the tutorial.
- Develop further questions based on tool use.
For example, a student might begin by supposing that the excess rain in New Zealand is the result of increased relative humidity in that area (perhaps by simply comparing the humidity and the rain) – but a question arises from this comparison, why is the relative humidity higher in the upper-levels, above the area where it is raining? To answer that, they might decide they need to use the condensation tool. In that tutorial, they learn that water will condense as it gets colder. So, to test this, they use the condensation tool in the data set, picking up a parcel near the surface and lifting it up to see that it does indeed condense and cool. They can further check things by comparing the temperature of the sea-surface to that in the upper atmosphere to get a better picture that it really is cooling that causes the condensation. This will lead to additional questions, though – the parcel won’t be at the same temperature as the environment. To find out why the student can investigate using the lifting tool.
The narrative should sit on top of the VGEE, and the VGEE should not depend on the narrative, so that the visualization can be used in a more open investigation or one directed by instructors.
The tutorials should be organized and indexed as part of a virtual encyclopedia, accessible from the main student interface. This encyclopedia should include pointers to the world outside.
Issues:
Real data set might present detail that would be distracting to students. Instead we could isolate particular times in the data set and prepare these to represent the three phases of ENSO (normal conditions, El Niño, and La Niña). This would also simplify things computationally.
What is an effective strategy to guide student inquiry in the visualization environment? We could allow the tools to appear in a specific order, which would determine how the student investigates the visualization
What should the main student interface look like? One suggestion is an interface centered on Vis5d, with additional tools to the left side of the main visualization window. Left clicking would allow the tool to be used in the visualization environment, and right clicking would open the tutorial (maybe in a web interface) over the main visualization window.
How much exploration should we allow in the encyclopedia? How can we ensure that students can find their way back to the main task/objective? Navigational aids may provide the answer to this question.
What is the overall architecture of the VGEE? Is it web-based, with the visualization inside?
