Collaborative: Full-Scale Development: Living Liquid: Creating Interactive Visualization Tools to Explore Large Ocean Datasets

该项目将开创一种批判性的新科学展览类型：让参观者参与科学研究过程的互动可视化。在交互平台中创建大规模数据集的高级可视化的能力是在先前的路径项目中开发的。在这一全面开发项目中，互动平台将安装在博物馆/科学中心的环境中，并将接受评估，以确定参观者如何利用大数据集的互动高级可视化来自己探索涉及世界海洋的科学问题。这一名为Living Liquid的展示将根据海洋生态项目中的科学合作伙伴提供的三个大型数据集进行可视化，并对路径示范项目中开发的数据进行编程。旧金山探索博物馆的参观者将在互动展示桌上观看这些数据的可视化。数据显示允许用户查看显示在找到它们的地理位置中的数据元素。与专注于单向展示或需要引导调解的其他为公众创建视觉展示的努力不同，Living Liquid平台的用户可以自己指导数据调查。与家里或平板电脑的屏幕不同，这种显示形式旨在促进围绕着显示的群体之间的互动和对话，作为一种自给自足的调查形式。表格设计的优势在于内置在显示器中的物理和数字界面，使对数据的探索具有吸引力、直观和有意义，引发问题和比较，并使用户可以发现数据中的模式。该项目的科学合作伙伴选择了三个区域作为展示台，其中包括：根据麻省理工学院达尔文项目模拟改编的浮游生物模式，世界各地的科学家使用该模拟模型来研究海洋中生活着哪些类型的浮游生物及其存在的原因。在Viz桌子上，这一模拟将被修改，以便游客可以通过真实的玻璃透镜探索浮游生物的多样性和数量，这是这次可视化工作的一个独特功能。“基因节律”是基于微生物海洋学研究和教育中心(C-MORE)的数据，该中心研究微小海洋生物在不同环境条件下开关和开启的基因。在Viz桌子上，参观者将能够探索不同基因的活动，因为海洋条件在一天中发生变化。“海洋追踪”使用了斯坦福大学TOPP项目的数据，该项目正在研究大型海洋生物的迁徙路径与环境条件的关系。这种可视化将允许游客跟踪鲨鱼、海龟或鲑鱼等海洋生物的路径，以及它们与温度梯度或洋流等条件的相关性。数据展示是彼此分开的，因为每个科学合作伙伴收集和研究数据的方式是不同的。该项目将评估公众如何通过特别设计的可视化与大型数据集互动，以及可视化在多大程度上加强了对数据的了解。它还将评估观众如何通过可视化上的交互功能使用数据，控制他们自己对真实科学数据的探索，以了解和探索数据告诉他们关于海洋生态问题的信息。该项目包括由科学家领导的公共项目，使用可视化来探索科学主题和通过可视化数据确定的问题。它还包括一项关于非正式学习者如何使用数据可视化来支持自我定向或小组探究和学习的研究。该项目为科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)专业人员提供了专业发展的机会，教他们如何使用先进的可视化能力向公众和在他们自己的工作中传达研究方法和成果。在大型数据集的新兴应用中，挑战之一是将计算机科学家、生物学家、认知科学家和图形设计师聚集在一起，了解如何创建和解释大型数据存储库的可视化。对颜色、感知或有效互动的使用的主要见解似乎不会超出给定的领域。因此，需要为STEM专业人员提供机会，让他们了解有效的可视化技术以及用户测试和评价。这个项目为跨学科的专业人员提供了分享知识和接受培训的机会，同时专注于为公众创造可视化的目标。

This project will pioneer a critical new genre of science exhibit: interactive visualizations that engage visitors in the process of scientific inquiry. The capability to create advanced visualizations of large scale data sets in an interactive platform was developed in a prior pathways project. The interactive platform will be installed in a museum/science center setting in this full scale development project and will be assessed to determine how visitors utilize the interactive advanced visualizations of large data sets to explore for themselves, scientific issues involving the world's oceans. The display, called Living Liquid, will develop visualizations from three large data sets provided by science partners in the project involving ocean ecology, with programming of the data developed in the pathways demonstration project. The visualizations of this data will be viewed by visitors to the Exploratorium in San Francisco on an interactive display table. The data display allows users to see data elements displayed in the geographic location from which they were found. Unlike other efforts to create visual displays for the public focused on a one-way display or that require guided mediation, users of the Living Liquid platform can direct the investigation of the data themselves. Unlike a screen at home or a tablet, the display format is intended to promote interaction and dialogue among the groups that form around the display as a self-supporting form of investigation. The strength of table design is in the physical and digital interfaces built into the display that make the exploration of data appealing, intuitive and meaningful, to evoke questions and comparisons and make patterns in the data discoverable by the users. The three areas chosen for the display table from science partners in the project include: "Plankton Patterns," an adaptation of the MIT Darwin Project simulation, which is used by scientists around the world to study what types of plankton live in the oceans and why they are there. On the Viz Table, this simulation will be adapted so visitors can explore the diversity and number of plankton through real glass lenses, a unique feature of this visualization effort. "Genetic Rhythms" is based on data from the Center for Microbial Oceanography Research and Education (C-MORE) which studies what genes microscopic ocean creatures turn off and on under different environmental conditions. On the Viz Table, visitors will be able to explore the activity of different genes as the ocean conditions change throughout a day. "Ocean Tracks" uses data from the TOPP project at Stanford University, which is studying the migratory paths of large marine creatures in relation to environmental conditions. This visualization will allow visitors to follow the paths of marine creatures such as sharks, turtles, or salmon and how they correlate to conditions such as temperature gradients or ocean currents. The data displays are separate from each other because, how data is collected and studied is different for each science partner. The project will assess how the public interacts with the large data sets through the specially designed visualizations and the extent to which the visualization enhances the understanding of the data. It will also assess how viewers use the data through the interactive functions on the visualization, controlling their own explorations of real scientific data to understand and explore what the data tells them about issues of ocean ecology. The project includes scientist-led public programs using the visualizations to explore science topics and issues identified by the data through the visualization. It also includes a research study on how informal learners can use data visualizations to support self-directed or group inquiry and learning. The project provides opportunities for professional development for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals in how to use advanced visualization capabilities to communicate research methods and findings to the public and in their own work. One of the challenges in the emerging use of large data sets is bringing together computer scientists, biologists, cognitive scientists, and graphic designers to understand how to create and interpret visualizations of large data repositories. Major insights on the use of color, perception or effective interaction do not seem to extend beyond a given field. Consequently there is a need to provide opportunities for STEM professionals to learn about effective visualization techniques and user-testing and evaluation. This project provides the opportunity for cross-disciplinary professionals to share knowledge and get training while focused on a goal of creating visualization for the public.