HR: 11:50h
AN: ED12A-07    [Abstracts]
TI: Basic GAPS: A Dynamic Earth System Model For Students
AU: * Robin, J
EM: jrobin@ltpmail.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: University of Maryland-College Park, 2181 LeFrak, College Park, MD 20742 United States
AU: Levine, E
EM: elissa@ltpmail.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 923, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AB: Basic GAPS is a computer model for students that can simulate the cycles of water and energy between the atmosphere, soil, and vegetation. Students can easily obtain the required soil, vegetation, phenology, and climate data from sources such as the GLOBE program data archive and input the information through guided menus. As the model simulation runs, the flow of water and other environmental processes are displayed so students can observe how different parts of the system change and are affected by each other. A major goal of the Basic GAPS model is to teach students that the Earth's ecosystems are the result of closely linked, dynamic interactions among many processes and many components. Basic GAPS enables students to study the interplay among these processes in a quantitative way with dynamic visualizations. They can examine linkages within a particular biome, such as the sensitivity of soil moisture to seasonal changes in the overlying vegetation or the amount of evaporation and transpiration under certain types of soil or land use. Using Basic GAPS, students can also make up different scenarios (such as increasing the temperature, changing the pattern of precipitation, or modifying the soil properties or vegetation type) to make predictions about how the ecosystem may respond. In this way, students, just like scientists, can pose and address questions regarding the impact of climate, including global climate change, on the environment.
DE: 0800 EDUCATION
DE: 0845 Instructional tools
DE: 0850 Geoscience education research
SC: Education and Human Resourcese [ED]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting