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

这个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）——致力于地球特征的可视化和分析。本项目针对通识教育课程中最高招生课程的两个课程需求：海洋学导论讲座和实验。培养了两项重要但难以获得的技能：第一，可视化不同时间和空间尺度的三维地球现象的结构和演变的能力；第二，理解科学探究过程是对思想的探索和演变，而不是对事实的静态收集的能力。在ESL课程中，学生不是被动的观察者，而是积极的参与者，观察、描述、解释和整合地球数据。ESL课程为非专业学生提供必要的实践经验，使科学发现过程栩栩如生。计算机正在连接到校园和全球网络，从而使学生能够访问许多专业科学家可用的资源。该项目为他们提供了一个访问数据和操作软件的指导路径，通过使用马赛克类型的浏览软件来识别资源，并创建将这些资源链接到学生可以选择的菜单项的文档。该项目的实施是通过为ESL购置硬件和软件而创造新的练习。

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.