AFGE: Developing a Virtual Museum Using the World Wide Web

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9809458AckermanThe PI will create a virtual museum depicting the contributions to the geosciences of the late Verner E. Suomi, the father of the geostationary weather satellite, and to help teach people the practical ramifications of his work. Professor Suomi's research and inventions have led to many scientific breakthroughs in our understanding of the Earth's energy budget, as well as new techniques for indirect measurements that are widely used across many disciplines. The idea is to use the Web in new, interactive ways to encourage learning at all levels (public, primary and secondary, college) by showing not only some historical perspectives, but more importantly by using highly interactive learning modules to provide opportunities for better understanding the meaning of everyday experiences. Modules will be created for the virtual museum, using Professor Suomi's work as the theme. The virtual museum concept reflects an approach to designing educational Web activities. The Web should flow like a museum and not a book. Books need to be read from front to back; whereas, we enter a museum and then go to the rooms that interest us most. This museum design concept allows learners to choose a particular module that interests them, and then provides links and thoughts that relate the current exercise to other activities. In true museum fashion, Web pages will be linked together in a variety of different ways, and not force the visitor to strictly follow any preconceived path. The Web has an advantage over the museum in that one can better link relationships between rooms. The highly interactive approach reflects the nature of a hands-on museum. There are substantial numbers of applications for this work, ranging from summer workshops for high school teachers, to kiosks in actual museums, to classroom use in teaching concepts of remote sensing. Properly designed activities could also serve the community at large by providing a reference for understandable explanations of difficult concepts. This is groundbreaking research that has immediate widespread potential.