Toward a General Scientific Visualization Architecture for Education

9453715 Edelson 科学可视化技术在相对较短的时间内对科学实践产生了巨大影响，因为科学可视化为人类观察大量数据的关系、模式和过程提供了无与伦比的能力。 这项研究将试图证明，出于类似的原因，科学可视化技术可以在教育环境中产生类似的影响。 该研究的目的是评估在探究式学习过程中使用科学可视化是否可以使不同学术能力的学生对复杂甚至混乱的现象（如气候、天气和大气温室效应）形成科学的理解。 除了那些采用传统教学技术的最聪明、最积极主动的学生之外，其他人都无法理解这些复杂的自然现象。 我们之前的研究表明，对于从事探究式学习的学生来说，科学可视化可以成为一种有价值的学习工具。 然而，这项研究还揭示了对科学可视化软件架构的需求，该架构为学习者提供专门针对在探究式学习过程中使用可视化的支持。 这种以研究为导向，将供科学家使用的工具和技术转变为支持学生发展强大的科学理解的环境，是一项重大挑战。 作为这项研究的一部分，我们将开发和评估支持性科学可视化环境，用于研究大气科学的两个重要领域：气候/天气和大气温室效应。 利用这些环境，我们将进行一组四项研究，旨在检验科学可视化作为中等科学教育技术的前景和挑战。 在这些研究中，我们将研究与其他教学方法相比，支持性科学可视化架构如何影响学生的概念理解和他们进行科学探究的过程。 我们将研究学生从科学可视化中学习理解的过程，以及在基于探究的课堂中采用科学可视化环境的方式。 ***

9453715 Edelson The techniques of scientific visualization have had a tremendous impact on the practice of science over a relatively short period of time because of the unparalleled capacity scientific visualization provides for human observations of relationships, patterns, and processes in large quantities data. This research will attempt to demonstrate that the techniques of scientific visualization can have a similar impact in educational environments for similar reasons. The goal of the research is to assess whether the use of scientific visualization in the course of inquiry-based learning can enable students across the spectrum of academic ability to develop a scientific understanding of complex, even chaotic phenomena, such as climate, weather, and atmospheric greenhouse effect. Understanding of these complex natural phenomena has been out of reach of all but the brightest and most highly motivated students with traditional instructional techniques. Our previous research has demonstrated that scientific visualization can be a valuable learning tool for students engaged in inquiry-based learning. However, this research also revealed the need for a software architecture for scientific visualization that provides learner support targeted specifically at the use of visualization in the course of inquiry-based learning. This research-guided transformation of tools and techniques developed for use by scientists into environments to support students in the development of robust scientific understanding is a significant challenge. As part of this research, we will develop and evaluate supportive scientific visualization environments for the study of two important areas of atmospheric science: climate/weather and atmospheric greenhouse effect. Using these environments, we will conduct a set of four studies designed to examine the prospects and the challenges of scientific visualization as technology for secondary science education. In these studies, we will examine the ways in which the supportive scientific visualization architecture, in comparison to other instructional approaches, can impact both students' conceptual understanding and the process by which they conduct scientific inquiry. We uill examine the process by which students learn to make sense from scientific visualizations and the way that scientific visualization environments are adopted in inquiry-based classrooms. ***