School of Education and Social Policy and
Institute for the Learning Sciences
Northwestern University
The work of the SSciVEE project
was completed in April 1999.
Current work is being continued
under the auspices of the WorldWatcher
Project.
Up-to-date information and current
resources can be found at http://www.worldwatcher.northwestern.edu.
Download a 2-page summary
of the SSciVEE project
This page...
Description of the WorldWatcher Software
Inquiries / Support / Related Work
SSciVEE Resource Pages...
Software, resources, and up-to-date materials
are now available
at the website of the WorldWatcher
Project
Some of WorldWatcher's key features are:
Data. WorldWatcher is a visualization environment for two-dimensional, gridded data. Data is distributed with WorldWatcher in data libraries that support educational activities centered around specific. In addition, users can import their own data into WorldWatcher using a standard spreadsheet format. The first data library that we have developed was designed to support investigations of global climate and climate change. This climate data includes global data sets showing the transfer of energy through the earth-atmosphere system. This climate-related data is supplemented with human and physical geography data that allow students to examine the causes and implications of climate change. The data sets are drawn from a variety of NASA and other public domain sources. Current data include:
Interface to data. WorldWatcher provides
users with diagrammatic interfaces for accessing data. These interfaces
can take the form of schematic diagrams that graphically display the relationships
among variables (Figure 1a). Such an interface can help students to understand
the meanings of variable names and their inter-relations (e.g., incoming
solar energy and earth-atmosphere reflectivity). Users can create their
own diagrammatic interfaces as part of the process of creating new data
collections.
Figure 1a. The Interface to Energy Balance data in WorldWatcher.
Figure 1b. The interface to Human and Physical Geography data in WorldWatcher
Notes and Annotation. Users can annotate visualizations with
a grease pen feature, record notes in annotation windows, and create dynamic
WorldWatcher documents with a notebook feature. The notebook
supports text, multimedia, and "hot" links to specific visualizations.
Notebooks are simple and easy to use, offering an easily adaptable environment
for teachers to design and disseminate activities, and for students to
create projects or record their progress.
Interpretive visualization. WorldWatcher provides many of the display features of visualization environments designed for scientific researchers. It displays two-dimensional global data in the form of color maps. To provide geographical context, it displays them with latitude and longitude markings and an optional continent outline overlay (Figure 2).
A constantly updating readout follows the user's mouse as it travels over an image, displaying the current latitude, longitude, country or state/province, and data value. Users customize their scientific visualizations by modifying the colorscheme, the mapping of colors to numerical values, the spatial resolution, and the magnification. They can also choose to display units in either metric or alternative systems.
WorldWatcher provides statistical summaries for
entire maps and for user-selected regions. Regions can be selected using
rectangular and irregular region selection tools, as well as by specifying
geographic areas by name (e.g., China), or data values by range (e.g.,
all areas with temperatures above 32 degrees F.).
Figure 2. A WorldWatcher Visualization window.
Analytic visualization. In addition to the statistical summaries
described above, WorldWatcher provides a number of functions for the mathematical
analysis of data. WorldWatcher supports the quantization of an image, i.e.,
the transformation of the full range of input data values into a small
number of discrete values. It also supports both unary and binary mathematical
operations on the data. Within an image, users can add, subtract, multiply,
or divide all the values in a region or an entire image by a constant.
They can also normalize the values in an image, and using the blackbody
equation convert energy values to temperature and temperature values to
energy. Binary operations enable users to apply a function at each location
in two images. The binary operators in WorldWatcher are addition, subtraction,
multiplication, division, maximum, minimum, and correlation. The result
is displayed in the form of a new visualization.
Expressive and constructive visualization. Some of the most powerful
learning activities that we have observed students engage in with scientific
visualization technologies are those in which they use representational
media to express themselves and construct hypothetical scenarios. WorldWatcher
enables students to use scientific visualizations as expressions of their
beliefs and hypotheses in three ways. One is through the customization
of the display of visualizations using the features for changing resolution,
color schemes, and magnification described under interpretive visualization.
The second is through the mathematical creation of new data using the techniques
for analytical visualization described above or using the model described
below. The third is through a direct manipulation interface using a paint
metaphor. The WorldWatcher paint interface allows the user to "draw" new
data values on a visualization using a paintbrush tool for painting pixel
by pixel or a paintcan tool for filling regions. Users specify the data
values to paint by typing in a value or by using an eyedropper tool to
select values from an image or its colorscheme.
The eyedropper tools toward the left enable users to specify data values to paint. The paintbrush and paintcan tools are used to "paint" new data values in a visualization.
Students have used the expressive capabilities of WorldWatcher to represent the state of their understanding (e.g., prior conceptions) and to create hypothetical scenarios. Student-drawn visualizations can be used as input to the WorldWatcher model that calculates new energy balance data sets.
Figure 5. A reduced cut-and-fold diagram of surface temperature created by the WorldWatcher GlobeBuilder application. This figure can be cut out and folded into a "middle crystal" polyhedron consisting fourteen square and triangular faces.
Edelson, D. C. & Gordin, D.N. (1996) Adapting Digital Libraries for Learners: Accessibility vs. Availability. D-Lib Magazine, September 1996. [http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september96/09contents.html]
Edelson, D. C. (1996, in press). Realising authentic science learning through the adaptation of science practice. In B. J. Fraser & K. Tobin (Eds.), International Handbook of Science Education. Kluwer.
Gordin, D. N., Edelson, D. C., & Gomez, L. M. (1996). Scientific Visualization as an Interpretive and Expressive Medium. In D. C. Edelson & E. A. Domeshek (Eds.), Proceedings of the International Conference on the Learning Sciences, July 1996, Evanston, IL, (pp. 409-414). Charlottesville, VA: AACE.
Gordin, D.N., Edelson, D.C., Gomez, L.M., Lento, M., & Pea, R.D. (January,1996). "Student conference on global warming: A collaborative network-supported ecologically hierarchic geosciences curriculum," Proceedings of the Fifth American Meteorological Society Education Symposium.
Edelson, D. C., Pea, R. D., & Gomez., L. (1996). Constructivism in the collaboratory. In B. G. Wilson (Ed.), Constructivist learning environments: Case studies in instructional design, (pp. 151-164). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications.
Pea, R., Gomez, L., & Edelson, D. (1995). Science
Education as a Driver of Cyberspace Technology Development. Proceedings
of the Annual Meeting of the Internet Society, Honolulu, HI, June 27-30.
To request information, send email to:
info-worldwatcher@letus.northwestern.edu
To register your copy of WorldWatcher, send your name, address, and
email address to:
register-worldwatcher@letus.northwestern.edu
The WorldWatcher (Macintosh) software and reprints of publications are available upon request.
Address such inquiries to:
Daniel C. Edelson
Assistant Professor
Institute for the Learning Sciences
Northwestern University
1890 Maple Avenue
Evanston, IL 60201
E-mail: d-edelson@northwestern.edu
World-wide web: www.worldwatcher.northwestern.edu
This research is supported by the National Science Foundation Division
of Education and Human Resources (EHR) Program in Applications of Advanced
Technology (AAT) under grant no. RED-9453715.
The SSciVEE project maintains close relations with the Learning through
Collaborative Visualization (CoVis)
Project, as well as the Center for
Learning Technologies in Urban Schools.
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