HR: 08:15h
AN: ED11A-02    [Abstracts]
TI: Teaching Geosciences With Visualizations: Challenges for Spatial Thinking and Abilities
AU: * Montello, D R
EM: montello@geog.ucsb.edu
AF: University of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Geography University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 United States
AB: It is widely recognized that the geosciences are very spatial disciplines. Their subject matter includes phenomena on, under, and above the Earth surface whose spatial properties are critical to understanding them. Important spatial properties of geoscience structures and processes include location (both absolute and relative), size, shape, and pattern; temporal changes in spatial properties are also of interest. Information visualizations that depict spatiality are thus critically important to teaching in the geosciences, at all levels from K-12 to Ph.D. work; verbal and mathematical descriptions are quite insufficient by themselves. Such visualizations range from traditional maps and diagrams to digital animations and virtual environments. These visualizations are typically rich and complex because they are attempts to communicate rich and complex realities. Thus, understanding geoscience visualizations accurately and efficiently involves complex spatial thinking. Over a century of psychometric and experimental research reveals some of the cognitive components of spatial thinking, and provides insight into differences among individuals and groups of people in their abilities to think spatially. Some research has specifically examined these issues within the context of geoscience education, and recent research is expanding these investigations into the realm of new digital visualizations that offer the hope of using visualizations to teach complex geoscience concepts with unprecedented effectiveness. In this talk, I will briefly highlight some of the spatial cognitive challenges to understanding geoscience visualizations, including the pervasive and profound individual and group differences in spatial abilities. I will also consider some visualization design issues that arise because of the cognitive and ability challenges. I illustrate some of these research issues with examples from research being conducted by my colleagues and me, research informed by psychological and cartographic theory.
DE: 0800 EDUCATION
DE: 0845 Instructional tools
DE: 0850 Geoscience education research
SC: Education and Human Resourcese [ED]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting