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

该项目将开发一个由美国国家海洋和大气局开发的球面显示器的交互式应用程序，称为球面上的科学。这些球体是动画球体，可以显示行星的大气、海洋和陆地的动态动画图像。NOAA主要使用SOS作为一种教育和宣传工具来描述地球的环境过程。球体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法而开发的。世界各地的科学中心、天文馆和博物馆大约安装了70个球体，其中40个在美国。目前，球体仅显示静态内容。该项目将扩大可用内容的数量，并提供互动性。所得到的应用程序将对已安装的球体和考虑购买和安装球体显示器的机构都可用。球体上的数学将使用户能够为球体创建3-D交互图形内容。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互动。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，并将各种图形内容发送到球面显示器。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展示相结合，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。该项目将对软件进行原型、设计、实现、测试和评估，这些软件允许用户在已安装的球体上显示他们的计算工作，以及在项目中远程工作，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有明显的联系。该项目将增加初中生和高中生目标受众的计算和空间推理和思维能力。该应用程序将远程提供给个人用户，但可以很容易地在课堂环境中使用。教师、博物馆和科学中心的工作人员也可以使用该应用程序，以鼓励现场和远程用户使用该应用程序。使用科学球体装置成功地展示科学概念的交互式3-D展示可以导致其他大型公共展示装置的交互使用，例如墙壁或大屏幕投影。这一能力将扩大用户更多地使用这些视觉驱动设备学习STEM概念和内容的能力。

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.