SBIR Phase I: GFD-LAB: Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory for Earth Science Teaching

这个小型企业创新（SBIR）第一阶段项目将调查一种设备的设计、制造和销售的可行性，该设备将展示与天气和海洋系统相似的旋转流体系统现象。有了这样的设备和为教育者和学生提供的辅助材料，可以教授有助于满足NRC标准和AAAS基准的基本物理原理。当与适当的模拟软件相结合时，这种基于信息的技术可用于鼓励相互作用和以询问为基础的活动。这样一个系统将有助于促进跨学科的研究，使用最新的天基图像，并有助于在初中和高中阶段教授国家标准的内容，特别是地球科学。该项目旨在采用实验技术的结果，用于磨练科学家及其大学生的物理直觉，并使其能够为较低的学术水平和公众所接受。不需要使用复杂的数学模型来理解旋转流体的物理特性，新手将能够理解全球过程与他们每天观察到的天气之间的联系。在更广泛的范围内，该项目将使学生和公众更深入地了解天气系统的全球性质，以及科学家了解其潜在驱动力的方法。

This Small Business Innovation (SBIR) Phase I project will investigate the feasibility of the design, manufacture, and marketing of an apparatus that will demonstrate the phenomena of rotating fluid systems that parallel those in weather and ocean systems. With such a device and supporting materials for educators and students, underlying physical principles can be taught that help to satisfy the NRC Standards and AAAS Benchmarks. When coupled with suitable simulation software, such information-based technology can be used to encourage interactive and inquiry-based activities. Such a system will help promote interdisciplinary studies, use the latest space-based imagery, and aid in teaching the content of the national standards, especially earth science at the middle and high school level. The project seeks to take the results of experimental techniques used to hone the physical intuitions of scientists and their university students and make them accessible to lower academic levels and to the general public. Without employing the sophisticated mathematical models needed to understand the physics of rotating fluids, novices will be able to comprehend the connection between global processes and the weather they observe daily. On a broader scale, the project will result in a deeper understanding among school children and the general public of the global nature of weather systems and the methods by which scientists come to understand their underlying driving forces.