The Earth Systems Laboratory: An Interactive Tool to Improve Introductory Geoscience Courses

该项目在地球科学系创建了一个新的交互式计算机实验室--地球系统实验室(ESL)--致力于可视化和分析地球特征。该项目解决了普通教育课程入学人数最多的课程中的两个课程需求：海洋学概论讲座和实验室。培养了两项重要但难以获得的技能：第一，能够以不同的时间和空间尺度可视化三维地球现象的结构和演变；第二，将科学研究过程理解为思想的探索和演变，而不是静态的事实收集的能力。在ESL中，学生不是被动的观察者，而是观察、描述、解释和整合地球数据的积极参与者。ESL为我们的非专业学生提供了基本的实践经验，使科学发现过程变得生动起来。计算机正在连接到校园和全球网络，从而使学生能够访问专业科学家可用的许多资源。该项目通过使用马赛克式浏览软件识别资源并创建将这些资源链接到可由学生选择的菜单项的文档，为他们访问数据和操作软件提供了指导路径。该项目正在通过为ESL购置硬件和软件而创建新的练习来实施。

This project creates in the Department of Geosciences a new interactive computer laboratory--the Earth Systems Laboratory (ESL)--dedicated to the visualization and analysis of Earth features. The project addresses two curricular needs in the highest enrollment courses of general education curriculum: Introduction to Oceanography lecture and laboratory. Two important, but difficult-to-acquire skills are developed: first, the ability to visualize the structure and evolution of three-dimensional Earth phenomena with different time and space scales; second, the capacity to understand the process of scientific inquiry as an exploration and evolution of ideas, not a static collection of facts. In the ESL, students are not passive observers, but active participants in the observation, description, interpretation, and integration of Earth data. The ESL provides the essential hands-on experiences that make the scientific discovery process come alive for our nonmajors students. Computers are being connected to campus and global networks, thereby giving students access to many of the resources available to professional scientists. The project provides them a guiding path for their access to data and manipulating software by using Mosaic-type browsing software to identify resources and to create documents that link these resources to menu items that can be selected by students. The project is being implemented through the creation of new exercises made possible through the acquisition of hardware and software for the ESL.