HR: 11:35h
AN: ED12A-06    [Abstracts]
TI: Using 3D Interactive Visualizations In Teacher Workshops
AU: Kilb, D
EM: dkilb@epicenter.ucsd.edu
AF: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, IGPP 0225 UCSD, La Jolla, CA 92093-0225 United States
AU: * Cooper, I
EM: icooper@usc.edu
AF: Southern California Earthquake Center, University of Southern California, 3651 Trousdale Parkway, Suite 169, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0742 United States
AU: de Groot, R
EM: rdegroot@oxy.edu
AF: Southern California Earthquake Center, University of Southern California, 3651 Trousdale Parkway, Suite 169, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0742 United States
AU: Shindle, W
EM: wshindle@usgs.gov
AF: U.S. Geological Survey, 525 South Wilson Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91106 United States
AU: Mellors, R
EM: rmellors@geology.sdsu.edu
AF: San Diego State University, San Diego State University Dept. Geological Sciences MC-1020 5500 Campanile Dr., San Diego, CA 92182-102 United States
AU: Benthien, M
EM: benthien@usc.edu
AF: Southern California Earthquake Center, University of Southern California, 3651 Trousdale Parkway, Suite 169, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0742 United States
AB: Extending Earth Science learning activities from 2D to 3D was central to this year's second annual Teacher Education Workshop, which was held at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography's Visualization Center (SIO VizCenter; http://siovizcenter.ucsd.edu/). Educational specialists and researchers from several institutions led this collaborative workshop , which was supported by the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC; http://www.scec.org/education), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the SIO VizCenter, San Diego State University (SDSU) and the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS). The workshop was the latest in a series of teacher workshops run by SCEC and the USGS with a focus on earthquakes and seismic hazard. A particular emphasis of the 2004 workshop was the use of sophisticated computer visualizations that easily illustrated geospatial relationships. These visualizations were displayed on a large wall-sized curved screen, which allowed the workshop participants to be literally immersed in the images being discussed. In this way, the teachers explored current geoscience datasets in a novel and interactive fashion, which increased their understanding of basic concepts relevant to the national science education standards and alleviated some of their misconceptions. For example, earthquake hypocenter data were viewed in interactive 3D and the teachers immediately understood that: (1) The faults outlined by the earthquake locations are 3D planes, not 2D lines; (2) The earthquakes map out plate tectonic boundaries, where the 3D structure of some boundaries are more complex than others; (3) The deepest earthquakes occur in subduction zones, whereas transform and divergent plate boundaries tend to have shallower quakes. A major advantage is that these concepts are immediately visible in 3D and do not require elaborate explanations, as is often necessary with traditional 2D maps. This enhances the teachers' understanding in an efficient and painless way. Undoubtedly, the better teachers understand multi-dimensional data, and the easier it is to explore these data in 3D, the more effectively they can convey this information to their students. To make these teaching tools available to a larger audience, we distribute these tools on line (http://www.siovizcenter.ucsd.edu/library/objects/index.php). Many tools are downloadable to a base computer (not requiring uninterrupted web conductivity during class time), and the required freeware is platform independent (Windows Xp/2000/Nt/98, Linux, SGI, Sun, Mac OSX). One participant summed up the workshop as THIS ROCKS!
UR: http://www.siovizcenter.ucsd.edu/workshop/index.html
DE: 0830 Teacher training
SC: Education and Human Resourcese [ED]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting