Math on a Sphere: An Interactive Exploration of 3D Surfaces for Public Audiences

该项目将为NOAA开发的球形显示器开发一个交互式应用程序，名为“球体上的科学”。这些球体是动画地球仪，可以显示一个行星的大气、海洋和陆地的动态动画图像。NOAA主要使用SOS作为一种教育和推广工具来描述地球的环境过程。球体上的科学最初是作为一种使用新的可视化技术探索环境数据的方式而开发的。在世界各地的科学中心、天文馆和博物馆中，大约有70个球形装置，其中40个在美国。目前球体只显示静态内容。该项目将扩展可用内容的数量并提供交互性。由此产生的应用程序将提供给已安装的球体和那些考虑购买和安装球体显示器的机构。球体上的数学将使用户能够为球体创建3d交互式图形内容。该项目将使用户能够在现场或远程与他们为球体开发的显示器进行交互。通过使用基于计算机的工具包，用户可以创建自己的程序，构建几何图案，并向球形显示器发送各种图形内容。该项目假设，以用户为导向的开发与视觉上引人注目的球形显示器相结合，将激发人们对STEM主题的兴趣，特别是在测试版本中，数学内容。该项目将原型、设计、实现、测试和评估软件，允许用户在安装的球体上显示他们的计算工作，也可以在项目中远程工作，并通过计算机显示器或球体本身的相机视图远程查看球体显示来测试他们的数学计算。虽然原型的开发将侧重于数学概念，但正在开发的工具包与物理学、气象学、海洋学和天文学之间存在明显的联系。该项目将增加初中和高中学生的目标受众的计算和空间推理和思维。该应用程序可以远程供个人用户使用，但也可以很容易地在教室环境中使用。该应用程序可以被教师、博物馆和科学中心的工作人员使用，也可以鼓励用户在现场和远程使用它。利用“球体上的科学”装置成功演示交互式3d科学概念后，可以使用其他大型公共展示装置（如墙壁或大屏幕投影）进行交互式展示。这种能力将扩展用户的能力，以便更好地利用这些视觉驱动的设备来学习STEM概念和内容。

This project will develop an interactive application for spherical displays developed by NOAA called Science on a Sphere. The spheres are animated globes that can show dynamic, animated images of the atmosphere, oceans, and land of a planet. NOAA primarily uses SOS as an education and outreach tool to describe the environmental processes of Earth. Science On a Sphere was initially developed as a way to explore environmental data using new visualization techniques. There are about 70 installations of the sphere in science centers, planetariums and museums world-wide with 40 in the US. Currently the spheres only display static content. This project will extend the amount of content available and provide interactivity. The resulting application will be available to both installed spheres and those institutions thinking about purchasing and installing the sphere display.Math on a Sphere will enable users to create 3-D interactive graphic content for spheres. The project will enable users to interact with the displays they develop for the spheres either on-site or remotely. Through the use of a computer-based toolkit, users can create their own programs, build geometric patterns, and send a variety of graphical content to the spherical display. The project hypothesizes that user-directed development combined with a visually compelling spherical display will spark interest in STEM topics and specifically, in the test version, mathematical content. This project will prototype, design, implement, test, and evaluate software that allows users to display their computational work on an installed sphere as well as work remotely on the project and to test their mathematical computations by viewing the spherical display remotely either through a computer monitor or a camera view of the sphere itself. While the prototype will be developed focusing on mathematical concepts, there are clear links between the toolkit being developed to physics, meteorology, oceanography and astronomy. The project will increase the computational and spatial reasoning and thinking of the target audience of middle school and high school students. The application will be available remotely for individual users but could easily be used in classroom settings. The application can be used by teachers and museum and science center staff as well to encourage its use among users both on site and remotely. The successful demonstration of interactive 3-D display of science concepts using the Science on a Sphere installations can lead to interactive use of other large public display installations such as walls or large screen projection. This capability would extend the ability of users to derive greater use of these visually driven devices for learning STEM concepts and content.