Presentation and Poster Abstracts
Presentation titles, abstracts, and PowerPoint presentations
35 Years of Trying to Get Data for Researchers and Educators
Tom Whittaker, SSEC, University of Wisconsin at Madison
"Everyone talks about weather data, and everyone tries to do something about it..."
For more than 3 decades, I have been working with "weather" data in the federal goverment and at an education & research university. The challenges of using atmospheric science-related data are at once unique and common in the physical sciences. Very few other disciplines desire (require, some would say) access to realtime data. "Realtime" in this case means that the data are updated sometimes as often as every few minutes, and data volumes run in the 10s of megabytes. The challenges of using this data are common to those of other disciplines in the sense that, if you want to use the data for computations and display, you must have an agreement between the data provider and the tool maker about things such as formats and conventions. In the past 35 years, this has not changed.
What has changed, is that we are now being flooded with many times more data than before, the data are being moved from place-to-place much faster, and more educators and researchers are working across disciplines. The Unidata project at UCAR has been adapting rapidly to this changing environment, and has demonstrated very successful approaches to help keep us from being overwhelmed with a plethora of operating systems, transfer protocols, names, units, data types, etc. At the same time, federal funding agencies have not kept pace promoting best practices among data providers they support to adhere to community-developed conventionsinstead, they have occasionally chosen to ignore the needs of the community and created their own ways of doing things. The issues brought about by this practice are now becoming clear, and some groups are actively pursuing solutions.
Activities in the past few years in digital libraries and cataloging data holdings in ways that can be queried by software are a natural outgrowth of the desire to quickly and uniformly locate desired data from the ever-growing collections. These efforts are bound to help beleaguered educator or researcher locate the data they want. We now have more data, more types of data, and more data "products" than could have been imagined three decades ago. Ideas being promoted by the OpenGIS Consortium to unify the request form for data will also evolve to promote less customization of analysis and display software. The next obvious step is to follow the highly successful model that Unidata has demonstrated: encourage adoption of a (very) small set of actual file formats and transfer mechanisms, and strongly promote conventions for common attributes -- for example, units.
35 Years of Trying to Get Data for Researchers and Educators (PowerPoint 8MB Jan24 07)
An Introduction to Skew-Ts ( 2.3MB Jan24 07)
Outcomes of the 2004 Data Services Workshop and the 2005 Workshop
Tamara Shapiro Ledley, TERC
Outcomes of the DLESE Data Services Workshop 2004 (PowerPoint 9MB Jan24 07)
NASA Earth Observatory Team and the 2004 workshop
David Herring, NASA, and Ali Whitmer, UCSB
The NASA Earth Observatory (PowerPoint 1.8MB Jan24 07)
My World/Environmental Sustainability Index Chapter from 2004 Data Services Workshop
Danny Edelson, Northwestern University
Mapping Environmental Quality Around the World
Context and Resources for Teaching with Data
Sean Fox, Carleton College
Our work with data is better understood within the context of the larger education reform efforts; teaching with data to involve students in true critical thinking experiences so that we can make progress toward true widespread science literacy. Existing resources outline key challenges and opportunities.
Teaching with Data presentation (PowerPoint 2.5MB Jan24 07)Teaching Hydrology Using a Digital Watershed
David Maidment, University of Texas at Austin
A Digital Watershed is a synthesis of observed and modeled information that describes the physical environment of a watershed and depicts the flow of water through it. Understanding land surface -- atmospheric interaction is enhanced by visualizing the North American Regional Reanalysis of climate using Unidata's Integrated Data viewer. This enables students to perform budgets for vertical fluxes of water and energy. These budgets can be combined with accounting for streamflow inputs and outputs using data from USGS stream gaging stations so as to arrive at an overall water budget combining both vertical and horizontal flows of water. Normally, hydrology is taught by a "process" oriented approach where precipitation, evaporation, infiltration, streamflow and groundwater flow are all treated separately. Using the "watershed" oriented approach just described focuses attention on the function of a particular watershed and how the flows of water in its various parts fit together and interact.
Data access and analysis with Unidata's Integrated Data Viewer (IDV)
Don Murray, Unidata
Unidatas Integrated Data Viewer (IDV) is a freely available, Java-based tool that can be used for analysis and visualization of multi-dimensional, multi-disciplanary geoscience data sets. The integrated nature of the IDV allows users to bring in data from multiple servers through a variety of protocols and combine them into a single display. The IDV allows users to slice and probe these data sets and is a useful tool for interactively exploring the Earth System.
This demonstration will provide an overview of the IDV's capabilities and examples of how it can be used to look a variety of geoscience data. For further information, see the Unidata IDV website.
The Atmospheric Visualization Collection
Christopher Klaus, Argonne National Laboratory
This demonstration will provide an overview of the Atmospheric Visualization Collections (AVC). The AVC includes a range of digital content including lesson plans, data images, and conceptual javascript models. The session will review the contributions of various groups to the development of the AVC, including educators who contributed and reviewed educational materials, and scientists who provided software code for visualization tools. Finally, the session will highlight the process of compiling the content into a formalized digital library collection.
AVC Lessons Learned (PowerPoint 4.1MB Jan24 07)Accessing Remote Data with HYDRA
Tom Whittaker, SSEC, University of Wisconsin at Madison
This session will feature practical remote access to large datasets for display, analysis, and algorithm development of hyper-spectral satellite data using the HYDRA (Hyperspectral viewer for Development of Research Applications). HYDRA is an evolving application written in Jython with the VisAD library and uses OpenDAP, ADDE and OpenADDE to read portions of large datasets from a variety of data centers.
EarthSLOT: 3D GIS for the rest of us
Matt Nolan, University of Alaska Fairbanks
EarthSLOT is a service that delivers the entire world in high-resolution 3D perspective via the internet, such that anyone with the skills to create a PowerPoint presentation can create movies, stills, or interactive animations involving terrain visualizations and GIS data. The basic idea is that we do the difficult and expensive tasks such as acquiring, merging, and serving a variety of large imagery and elevation datasets, leaving the fun and inexpensive tasks to others, such as freely flying anywhere on the planet in 3D with video game quality and annotating it with labels, lines, 3D objects, photos, etc. Those wishing to add their own annotations must purchase some software to do so, but within a few hours anyone with even moderate computer skills can create fairly sophisticated presentations. I like to think of EarthSLOT as GIS for the rest of us because it likely meets the GIS and terrain visualization needs of 90% of the scientists, educators, and public that might need such tools, without being so complicated that training is required to use it.
I believe the EarthSLOT service could be an ideal tool for both formal and informal education. Just the ability to see the planet in 3D is a great resource; we currently have 15 m spatial resolution data globally and many locations down to sub-meter resolution. Users can easily create new annotations and GIS layers within EarthSLOT, or they can ingest existing GIS data in nearly every common format (eg., Excel, shapefiles). A key feature is that one does not need to be a GIS expert to ingest such data, its really no more difficult than importing an image into PowerPoint. Thus the workload for creating educational modules can be distributed throughout the community without the need for GIS or tech experts to do the actual work. End-users can interact with these products over the internet for free. Sophisticated features like real-time tracking of boats or people are possible, as well as the ability to remotely-control the displays of others, such that a teacher on an expedition could actually teach a class (or hundreds of classes) remotely by flying them around their route or current location to aid describing the trip.
If this sounds too good to be true, check it out yourself at http://www.earthslot.org. Now that EarthSLOT is up and running, we are seeking long-term partners in education to begin developing educational modules or curricula using it and I hope that many within the DLESE community will see the potential for using EarthSLOT to accomplish their goals.
Student Collection, Reporting, and Analysis of GLOBE Data
Sandra Henderson and Edward Geary, UCAR, Boulder, Colorado
The GLOBE Program is an international science and education program that strongly leverages information technology to achieve its goals of improving Earth System science education and enhancing our scientific understanding of the world. GLOBE is committed to enabling primary and secondary school students around the world to contribute research quality data to the study of Earth. GLOBE is also committed to providing access to these data for all students and scientists worldwide, and encouraging the use of these data in both research and classroom settings. GLOBE has developed rigorous measurement protocols to ensure that data collected can be properly interpreted and used. Protocols describe how measurements are to be taken. A protocol includes instrument specifications, calibration and/or quality assurance techniques, site selection criteria, and measurement method. GLOBE protocols are developed so that they can be reliably carried out by students, can be easily integrated into classrooms and curricula by teachers, and will produce useful data for scientists. GLOBE uses technology to help ensure the quality of GLOBE data. The data entry system applies checks to student-input data to ensure that these data are within reasonable values and are internally consistent with other submitted measurements. Graphing and map visualization tools help student to see their data in the context of other measurements they have collected and measurements collected by other GLOBE schools. This helps them identify outliers and correct problems with measurement technique. GLOBE promotes the use of inquiry methods through the design of educational materials and teacher professional development activities. GLOBE measurements and activities are based around the idea of collecting local measurements and using these as the basis for asking questions on local, regional, and global scales.
Student Collection, Reporting, and Analysis of GLOBE Data (PowerPoint 2.9MB Jan24 07)
COMET science training: flexible, exciting, and informative
Alan Bol, UCAR
The UCAR Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training (COMET) develops training material for a number of topics in the Earth sciences including meteorology, hydrology, oceanography, and astronomy. Depending on the intended audience, the topics can be presented at a very basic level, such as the K-12 school age group, to very advanced concepts found in graduate level university courses.
The mode of delivery also varies. Distance learning training can include web modules with interactions and quizzes to engage the student, live teletraining sessions, and webcasts (either live or recorded). Residence courses are also offered and are useful at promoting beneficial interactions among the students and instructors. A particular course can involve a series of lessons with more than one mode of delivery.
Current training development in hydrologic sciences uses web modules, webcasts, teletraining and residence courses. Subject matter experts assist with the development and review of the material. There are several courses to cover the hydrologic training need from basic hydrologic sciences to more advanced or specific topics such as flash flood hydrology and ensemble streamflow forecasts and verification.
COMET science training: flexible, exciting, and informative (PowerPoint 789kB Jan24 07)The Live Access Server A Software Tool for Using Data in Research and Education
Roland Schweitzer, Weathertop Consulting, LLC
The Live Access Server (LAS) is a general purpose Web-server software tool for providing exploration (plotting, analysis, comparison and downloading) of geo-science data sets via a Web browser. Scientific data providers, curriculum developers, researchers, students, teachers and other science data users as well as software engineers have potentially different ways of using and interacting with LAS. During this presentation we will explore installations of the software and the software itself from all of these points of view.
LAS has been installed at 50 or so institutions throughout the world, giving the community access to the data collections held by these institutions and their collaborators. Regardless of which installation a user visits, the features of the software and how to use those features remains constant, so skills developed interacting with the software can transfer from site to site. LAS is highly flexible and configuration and comes with many tools to automate the configuration and installation of the software making it easy for institutions to present their data on the Web. A rich collection of scientific data available via LAS can be used in the classroom (most likely with the help of domain experts). LAS uses and interoperates with a variety of important open source standards (netCDF, OPeNDAP and THREDDS) in use in the scientific community for discovering and sharing data.
The Live Access Server A Software Tool for Using Data in Research and Education (PowerPoint 1.4MB Jan24 07)The SIOExplorer Digital Library project
Dru Clark, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), and the UCSD Libraries are collaborating to create an Oceanography Digital Library that will enable inquiry-driven learning for both scientists and "K through gray" users. Using materials from the SIO Library Archives and extensive scientific data sets from the SIO Geologic Data Center (GDC) as a starting point, the project applies SDSC-developed information technologies to provide Web access to integrated scientific data and published research papers, as well as historic documents for Scripps' voyages of discovery that bring the human side of oceanography to life.
The SIOExplorer Digital Library Project (PowerPoint 24.6MB Jan24 07)Poster Titles, Authors, and Abstracts
1 A GIS-based Asteroid Impact Activity for Undergraduate Non-science Majors
Mark Abolins and Lori Ford
The GIS-based asteroid impact activity http://www.mtsu.edu/~mabolins/activity1.3_final.pdf plus related data in http://www.mtsu.edu/~mabolins/impacts.zip includes two parts. In the first part, undergraduates use ArcView GIS and a modified portion of a digital geologic map http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/metadata/usgswrd/XML/geo250k.xml to investigate the Wells Creek Impact Structure in central Tennessee. Then, in the second part, undergraduates use GIS to learn the many ways that surrounding communities including Nashville and the Middle Tennessee State University campus in Murfreesboro would suffer if an identical impact happened today. Hypothetical impact effects were obtained from the Earth Impact Effects Program. Activity style and pedagogy closely follow those of curricula developed by Michelle Hall-Wallace and the SAGUARO Project . Undergraduate non-science majors successfully completed the activity during the Spring 2005 semester of a general studies Earth Science course at Middle Tennessee State University. The activity required roughly one hour and was assigned during the second week to familiarize undergraduates with GIS-based curricula (Hall-Wallace et al., 2003) that would be used later in the course. Of 106 undergraduates who completed a related reading comprehension homework activity, 104 (98%) also completed the GIS-based activity. Most (~75%) worked independently and the rest completed the GIS-based activity during office hours. The average scores for the two activities were statistically identical (92.4% on the reading comprehension activity and 91.2% on the GIS-based activity). In addition, undergraduates perceived the GIS-based activity as a grade booster because the average activity score exceeded that of the first exam (75.6%). The activity will be used during future semesters with minor modifications and will be submitted to the Digital Library for Earth System Education (probably during late 2005).Reference cited: Hall-Wallace, M., Walker, C. S., Kendall, L. P., and Schaller, C. J., 2003, Exploring Water Resources: GIS Investigations for the Earth Sciences. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole, 120 pgs.
2 Regional Climate Model Simulations
Christopher J. Anderson, Raymond W. Arritt, William J. Gutowski, Jr., Gene S. Takle, Francis Otieno, Zaitao Pan
We present examples of output available from regional climate models (RCMs). With RCMs, it is possible to generate high resolution three dimensional output of water cycle components. In a 60-day simulation of an extreme flood in the central United States, our output illustrates three important atmospheric processes: (1) time separation in the transfer of water from the surface to the atmosphere, (2) convergence of atmospheric water overnight, and (3) propagation of precipitation overnight. In a 10-year simulation under a future climate scenario, our output illustrates that warming may not occur every where in the United States. In the Midwest, surface temperatures are unchanged, whereas elsewhere temperatures rise 3-5 degrees Kelvin. The water cycle is central to this disparity. Our simulations illustrate a possible future climate in which heavier spring precipitation creates a reservoir of soil water that persists into the summertime, creating cool conditions during the summer.
3 The Science Center for Teaching, Outreach, and Research on Meteorology
Alan C. Czarnetzki
The STORM Project seeks to increase public understanding of and access to atmospheric science. Three main initiatives have been developed to work toward this goal: Curriculum Development, Meteorological Decision Support, and Satellite Remote Sensing. The curriculum development team has focused on the local development, regional testing, and national dissemination of curriculum materials and activities that seamlessly incorporate real-time meteorological data into K-9 classrooms. Age appropriate classroom activities are supplemented by real-time imagery created and hosted by STORM. These activities are available to educators nationwide. The meteorological decision support team has focused on the educational use of meteorological decision support systems developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Forecast Systems Laboratory. Intensive weather forecasting courses have been hosted by STORM each of the past four summers for undergraduate atmospheric science students from across the United States and for science educators in Iowa. This program area has also actively fostered outreach to school superintendents in Iowa, whose proper use of weather information could substantially benefit rural and urban citizens during adverse conditions. The remote sensing team has focused on the dissemination of remotely-sensed data about the atmosphere and land use as related to meteorological decision support. An image library hosted by STORM serves digital data to a variety of planning agencies in Iowa and the Midwest. Numerous graduate student projects on land use changes have also been supported by the project.
4 Global Relative Water Demand: How Population and Climate Change Influence Predictions of Stress in 2025.
Rita Freuder
A gridded half degree (nominal 40 km) study of surface water resources globally show that under scenarios of population change, or climate change or both, the bigger stress factor is population. Although the rate of annual population increase is decreasing, the global population is expected to top 9 billion by 2050. Population increase coupled with climate change, projects that in 2025 there will be severe water stress over much of the globe. This research was reported in Science: 14 July 2000, authors C.J. Vrsmarty, P. Green, J. Salisbury, and R. Lammers, Water Systems Analysis group, University of New Hampshire, Vulnerability from climate change and population growth. Water quantity and quality will be big issues for the coming generation and this topic should be one discussed in our science classrooms.
5 SSDS: Operational Innovations in Oceanographic Data Management
Andrew Chase, Kevin Gomes, John Graybeal, Mike McCann, Brian Schlining, Rich Schramm
The Shore Side Data System has been operational for several years managing the data from several ocean observing platforms at MBARI. The SSDS is designed for ready integration of new data sets from any instrument or platform, and provides access to the data through a variety of services.
6 The ERESE Project: Enactment of Digital Library Inquiry-Based Plate Tectonic Lessons
M Helly, C M Symons, N Dow, S P Miller, J Helly, H Staudigel, A Koppers
Teachers engaging their students in scientific inquiry using digital library materials. Teacher's use and reflect on their practice as they employ the pedagogy modeled by a lead scientist during their summer workshop. Teachers lessons are posted at EarthRef.org and are currently being field tested.
7 The GLOBE Program
Sandra Henderson, Craig Blurton
The GLOBE Program is a worldwide science and education partnership endeavor designed to increase scientific understanding of Earth as a system, support improved student achievement in science and math, and enhance environmental awareness through inquiry-based learning activities. GLOBE began on the premise that teachers and their students would partner with scientists to collect and analyze environmental data using specific protocols in five study areas atmosphere, soils, hydrology, land cover, and phenology. As the GLOBE network grew, additional partnerships flourished making GLOBE an unprecedented collaboration of individuals worldwide - primary, secondary, and tertiary students, teachers and teacher educators, scientists, government officials, and others to improve K-12 education. Since its inception in 1994, more than one million students in over 14,000 schools around the world have taken part in The GLOBE Program. The GLOBE Web site is the repository for over 12 million student-collected data measurements easily accessible to students and scientists worldwide. Utilizing the advantages of the Internet for information sharing and communication, GLOBE has created an international community. GLOBE enriches students by giving them the knowledge and skills that they will need to become informed citizens and responsible decision-makers in an increasingly complex world.
8 The Planetary Data Community
Meredith Higbie
Recognizing the effectiveness of using real planetary data in educational settings to engage students in space science, the Planetary Data Community was established to: a) build awareness of existing programs and resources; b) address the issues hindering the effective use of planetary data in these settings; c) provide a support network for educators, curriculum developers, tools developers, and data providers; d) and encourage partnerships that leverage the community's expertise. The first organized meeting of the Community was held in March 2004 to initiate conversations and explore issues in electronic access to planetary data for educational use. The participants included formal and informal educators, curriculum and product developers, planetary data providers, and Earth and space science researchers. The next meeting in Summer 2005 will bring stake holders together to begin to specifically address recommendations from 2004 workshop and identify paths to encourage and support new collaborations. In order to facilitate locating current resources, the Planetary Data Community is collaborating with DLESE to establish an interface on the Planetary Data Web site that searches the DLESE database for classroom resources (K-16) that use planetary data in student explorations. The interface will be searchable by elements such as data type, mission, planetary body, grade level, and standards. In the future, the Planetary Data Community will review new contributions to DLESE to determine which should be included in the Planetary Data Collection.
9 Building a Synchrotron Digital Library
Christopher Klaus
A description of the eventual goals for a synchrotron digital library, and information about the current development state for this effort.
10 Raster-based Streamflow Analysis - Hydrologic Regimes Like You've Never Seen Before!
Richard Koehler, PhD
A raster-based method of streamflow analysis is presented which allows for the visualization of large datasets and shows subtle temporal properties not possible in more traditional techniques. The method permits numerous plotting options for a variety of uses. Dual timescale hydrographs and correlograms are also presented as a way to detect changes to the natural flow regime caused by dam regulation and power production. Quantification of the raster image uses landscape ecology based measurements. Additionally, comparisons to climatic time series allows for natural and anthropogenic signatures to be detected in the streamflow record. This method can be used as a river management tool to help produce a more natural streamflow regime. Also, the visualization of streamflow change is helpful when addressing non-technical audiences such as funding organizations and government/tribal officials.
Raster-based Streamflow Analysis poster (Acrobat (PDF) 285kB Jan24 07)
11 Data Discovery Toolkit for Education
Martin Landsfeld and Bruce Caron
The New Media Studio is a collaborative partner with DLESE, and we welcome the DLESE community to join in our efforts to extend the use of Earth data resources in the classroom and informal education. We have already added a DLESE lead application to our inventory. When released, the World Ocean Atlas Viewer will bring this collection of global ocean data to the DLESE (and NSDL) communities.
12 DLESE Data Services: Facilitating the Effective Use of Earth Science Data in Education through Digital Libraries:Bridging the Gap between Scientists and Educators
Tamara Ledley, Ben Domenico, Mike Taber, LuAnn Dahlman
Creating learning modules that utilize Earth data is a difficult task, requiring knowledge about the data, science, curriculum design, and the educational context. The Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) Data Services group has hosted two workshops (May 2004 and April 2005) to bridge the knowledge gap between data providers and educators by assembling teams of experts in these areas to create data-rich learning modules. We found that face-to-face collaboration allowed the sharing of perspectives and the breaking down the language barrier unique to individual expertise permitting the development of data rich resources to move forward.
13 The DLESE Evaluation Services Group: A framework for evaluation within a digital library
Susan Buhr, Lecia Barker, and Thomas Reeves
The Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) Evaluation Services Core (ESC) team has been established to: 1) Provide evaluation support for DLESE core team activities, 2) Establish pilot studies with key user audiences (e.g. K-12 teachers and undergraduate faculty), 3) Implement studies designed to better characterize DLESE users and user needs, and 4) Offer evaluation support and opportunities for the DLESE community through workshops and grant opportunities. This poster is intended to describe the breadth and depth of our work. One of the key roles for the DLESE Evaluation Services team is to provide evaluation support for major DLESE activities and initiatives. The Evaluation team focuses upon major activities such as conference-based outreach, the DLESE Ambassadors program, DLESE Data Workshops, state-based digital teaching units, and the developing scientific accuracy review process. Work within these projects allows us to not only provide needed formative evaluation information to DLESE teams, but offer study sites to better understand user needs. For example, the California pilot study to develop state-based digital teaching units provides information to support that project, but also gives us insight into how teachers choose resources, what challenges exist for teachers using digital units, and what opportunities exist for DLESE to further an Earth system perspective. The DLESE vision is to serve a broad and diverse group of users; however, our initial pilot work is focused upon two key intended audiences: undergraduate faculty and K-12 teachers. Tom Reeves and students seek to understand the needs of undergraduate students and faculty who use DLESE. Their work has brought new immediacy to the development of hybrid search mechanisms within DLESE that will accommodate not only novice learner search terms but specialized scientific terms used by more advanced learners. Pilot studies within K-12 classrooms are providing new understanding of the ways DLESE can contribute to K-12 teachers needs. In addition to the digital teaching unit study mentioned previously, the ATLAS team seeks to understand the ways in which a reviewed collection, the Digital Water Education Library (DWEL), enables instruction in Jamestown, VA classrooms and what opportunities exist to increase the utility of such collections. For the first time, all users of the DLESE search and browse system are being asked to voluntarily state the purpose of their visit, their user role and their geographic location. Many choose to offer more detail on the nature of their search and their experiences with DLESE. Results from this survey are described in a separate poster. Over time, this survey will be used to ask different questions of users about their experiences with DLESE. The DLESE ESC seeks to build the evaluation capacity of the DLESE community through several means. Evaluation workshops are offered at scientific conferences and DLESE meetings, team members review and comment on the evaluation components of geoscience education proposals, and the Evaluation Toolkit thematic collection for geoscience education evaluation is available in DLESE. A new minigrants program is under development, to provide seed funds for evaluation projects of interest to DLESE.
14 Digital Data and the International Polar Year
M. McCaffrey, Unger M., Drobot, S., et al.
The International Polar Year 2007-2008 (IPY) presents numerous technical and logistical challenges as well as significant opportunities to encourage data literacy in a real-world context. The current scientific challenges identified for IPY are to: i) Assess large-scale environmental and social change in the polar regions; ii) Conduct scientific exploration of the polar regions; iii)Create multidisciplinary observing networks in the polar regions; iv) Increase understanding of human-environment dynamics; and v)Create new connections between science and the public. A variety of existing and emerging opportunities for accessing, contextualizing and using polar-related data for education and decision-support will be explored and discussed.
14.5 Snow and Ice Products from the Aqua, Terra, and ICESat Satellites at the National Snow and Ice Data Center
Walt Meier, Melinda Marquis, Marilyn Kaminski, Ron Weaver, Betsy Sheffield, and Julie Soja
Sensors on the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites are a significant advancement over their predecessors and are providing a wealth of information on snow and ice. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard the Aqua and Terra spacecraft and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) on the Aqua spacecraft provide improved visible/infrared and passive microwave imagery and products. The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) on the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) is the first satellite-borne laser altimeter and represents an entirely new technology for ice remote sensing. As one of NASAs Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs), the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, CO is the repository for these data. In Part I below, we present information and data examples of standard products available from NSIDC. In Part II, to the right, we present two case studies that demonstrate the utility of combinations of the products and value-added fields derived from the standard products. Information and data can be obtained at http://nsidc.org/daac/projects/.
15 My World GIS
David Smith
Using THREDDS in My World GIS: My World GIS is a geographic information system (GIS) designed specifically for use in educational settings. Its intended audience is middle school through college geosciences and geography courses where investigations involving geographic data can support the learning goals of the course. My World is designed to meet the needs of students and teachers and the constraints of educational settings in mind. It combines the power of a full-featured GIS environment with the support and structure required by novice users in an educational environment. My World is being developed by GEODE (Geographic Data for Education) Initiative at Northwestern, drawing on more than a decade of research on the design of data visualization and analysis environments for inquiry-based learning in the geosciences. Currently we are engaged in an integrated program of user studies and software development to extend and improve the software. The THREDDS 2nd generation grant is supporting the integration of THREDDS tools into My World. Because My World is the only full-featured GIS environment designed specifically for use in educational settings, it is a logical client for THREDDS. It also will provide as a testbed for exploring how to extend the THREDDS architecture to the full range of GIS data types (grids, polygons, polylines, and points) and file formats. Currently, My World is able to read THREDDS catalogs and access gridded data from remote servers taking advantage of THREDDS middleware to convert the data to a My World-compatible file format.
16 The ERESE Project: Modeling Inquiry-Based Plate Tectonic Lessons
Christina Massell Symons, Margaret Helly, John Helly, Steve Miller, Hubert Staudigel, Anthony Koppers
The Enduring Resources for Earth Science Education (ERESE) project is a collaborative effort between earth scientists, educators, librarians and data archive managers. Its goal is to develop and maintain a persistent online research and education archive in a digital library environment that supports earth science education in plate tectonics. A key to the library's effectiveness as an educational tool is the efficiency with which educators can access, use, and contribute to the library. We have created a master template that educators use to develop inquiry-based curriculum. The central components of the master template include a teacher log, a student log and resource matrices. The teacher's log is divided into stages that reflect our approach to inquiry. This approach was used during a workshop as scientists worked with the teachers to model a reasonable pedagogical analog to scientific inquiry. The student log is similar in structure to a scientific method lab report. There are currently 17 resource matrices that directly access canonical education objects in the digital library, 3 of which relate to expedition planning and 14 to plate tectonics. The structure of the resource matrices allows teachers and students to traverse manageable packets of information relating to a specific topic by expert level (rows) and information type (columns). Teachers download and customize the master template using any web composer and are then invited to upload their lessons through a simple interface at Earthref.org. Once uploaded the lessons become part of the ERESE digital library collection. The upload process allows teachers to define keywords and metadata to allow useful searches by topic, concept or educational standard. The use of a single master template for inquiry lesson design means library contributions will share a common format as well as exploit identical plate tectonic resources.
17 Delta Agriculture Middle School Applied Life Sciences
Patty Watts and Michael Camille
The DAMSALS2 ITEST Project at University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM) is training teachers to provide students with technology skills needed to prepare them for technology intensive careers in agriculture. Eco-loggers, hand-held GPS units, and ArcView GIS software are incorporated in the project curriculum, which uses the local agricultural environment as a medium for delivery of science coursework. Lessons follow the learning cycle model of instruction utilizing hands-on components extended by information technology applications. Following the summer institute are weeklong technology camps with students in local school settings. During the academic year, participants are visited by project staff, attend monthly compressed video conferences, interact via Blackboard, and meet face to face each semester. Evaluation of the project, led by the Institute for Integration of Technology into Teaching & Learning (IITTL), consists of pre and post assessments of teacher and student attitudes, technology skills, and content knowledge. A subset of the instruments employed has been used in previous projects allowing generalizability of ITEST findings.
18 DLESE Program Center
Mike Wright, Mary Marlino, Tammy Sumner
DLESE's Program Center (DPC) poster describes how the library works, the DPC's role in the library, and services the DPC offers, in addition to library services.
19 Coordinated Designs for Information, Communication, and Technology Assessments in Science and Mathematics Education
Edys Quellmalz, Bob Kozma, Dan Zalles, Patricia Kreikemeier, Anders Rosenquist, Karen Hurst
This poster describes an NSF-funded research project that resulted in the piloting of two science assessments requiring high school student use of two high-level technology tools -- a car crash simulator for assessing physics knowledge and a GIS (ArcView) for assessing student understanding of solar power.
20 Palmer Station, Antartctica, Long Term Ecological ProgramEducation and Outreach
Beth Simmons
As part of a network of scientists conducting long-term research (LTER), Palmer education and outreach is developing an emergent notion of authenticity using Antarctic research data in the classroom. We combine an inquiry-based learning model with signature elements of the Palmer LTER program to create a Palmer Education framework that endorses the use of long-term, real world, ecological data in alignment with state and national standards. The research methods and tools of scientific research are embedded within sound education pedagogy, facilitating opportunities for students to work with scientific data in all its forms. At the crux of our outreach are partnerships with ongoing research programs that have the potential to make positive impacts on science instruction and learning.