Living Liquid: A Pathways Project Visualizing the Ocean's Microbes and Their Impact on Our Planet

探索馆的路径项目将开发三个展览原型，旨在确定创建可视化工具的有效策略，这些工具将使公众参与海洋微生物及其对我们星球的影响的新兴研究。这项研究将为未来的全面发展项目提供信息，该项目将使用海洋微生物与气候之间联系的实时数据可视化，这是美国跨机构全球变化研究计划确定的气候扫盲的基本原则。与夏威夷大学微生物海洋学研究和教育中心以及加州大学戴维斯分校的可视化界面和设计创新小组合作，将通过协作和迭代过程设计和开发原型，其中包括对游客兴趣和海洋微生物相关先验知识的前端研究，以及与科学家的访谈，以确定潜在的数据集和活动。Word Craft将确定吸引公众参与的有希望的战略，并描述调查结果和对未来发展的影响，并将通过形成性评估过程与Exploratorium访问者一起测试原型。研究的主要受众是跨学科的专业受众，包括计算机科学家，微生物学家，展览设计师的直接项目团队，以及通过传播工作将达到的非正式科学教育，科学家和技术人员的更广泛领域。公共媒体中使用的当前可视化的调查将与项目结果一起沿着在科学技术中心协会、国家海洋和大气管理局的科学领域用户小组会议、戈登科学和教育可视化研究会议、海洋科学教育卓越中心、美国湖沼学和海洋学学会会议、和美国科学促进会年会。 该项目更广泛的影响将是产生关于如何利用真实的科学数据可视化吸引非正规学习者的知识，这将引起各学科科学家和教育工作者的兴趣。

The Exploratorium's Pathways project will develop three exhibit prototypes intended to identify effective strategies for creating visualization tools that will engage the public in emerging research on ocean microbes and their impact on our planet. The research will inform a future full-scale development project to use real-time data visualizations on the connection between ocean microbes and climate, an essential principle of climate literacy as identified by the interagency U.S. Global Change Research Program. In partnership with the Center for Microbial Oceanography Research and Education at the University of Hawaii and the Visualization Interface and Design Innovation Group at UC Davis, prototypes will be designed and developed through a collaborative and iterative process that includes a front-end study of visitors' interests and prior knowledge related to ocean microbes, and interviews with scientists to identify potential datasets and activities. Word Craft will identify promising strategies for engaging the public and describe findings and implications for future development and will test prototypes with Exploratorium visitors through a formative evaluation process. The primary audience for the research is a cross-disciplinary professional audience, consisting of the immediate project team of computer scientists, microbiologists, exhibit designers, and the wider field of informal science education, scientists, and technologists who will be reached through the dissemination efforts. A survey of current visualizations used in public media will be produced and disseminated along with project findings at the Association of Science-Technology Centers, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Science on a Sphere Users Group Meeting, the Gordon Research Conference on Visualization in Science and Education, the Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence, the American Society for Limnology and Oceanography meetings, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting. The broader impact of the project will be the knowledge generated on ways to engage informal learners using visualizations of real scientific data, which will be of interest to both scientists and educators across disciplines.