King’s CRYSTAL Center for Visualization in Science

Geowall and Beyond…

A Brief Word from our Sponsor…A Brief Word from our Sponsor…

• The following is a collaboration between the Visualization Center for Science Education at The King’s University College and The CRYSTAL-Alberta project. Hence forth …

The King’s Crystal CenterThe King’s Crystal Center forfor

Visualization in ScienceVisualization in Science

The Plan…

• What Do We Mean by Visualization?

• The King’s Crystal Center for Visualization in Science– Past– Present, Including a short GEOWALL tour– Future

Visualization - An Integral Part of Learning:

• Seeing and perception• Seeing in the “Minds Eye”• “Seeing” can take place with senses other than

your eyes• Visualization as metaphor for perceiving• Visualization plays a critical role in

understanding – both the understanding of the student as well as the understanding of the researcher

• Past– MAP project– Applet Development with/for Alberta Learning– Gordon Research Conferences on Visualization in

Science and Education

The King’s Crystal Center for Visualization in Science

What is MAP?

• A six-year project involving collaboration of 3 post-secondary institutions in the province of Alberta (King’s University College, U. of Calgary, U. of Alberta) as well as the Ministry of Education for the Province of Alberta.

• MAP provided high quality learning, WWW-deliverable objects for the teaching of the first 3 terms of university level Physics and scalable to meet the needs of most high school curricula

• Project MAP Executive Directors: David Austen, Wytze Brouwer, Hans Laue, Brian Martin

• Project Associates: Terry Singleton, Peter Wright• Programmers (MAP_North):

– Nathan Laan, Dave Ooms, Phil Martin, Peter Uitvlught, Rob McQuarrie, Tyler Luchko, Mike Schuurman, Brian Martin

• FLASH: Travis Whyte, Leah Martin• Content: Leah Martin, Nicole Albert, Melody

Russel, Brian Martin

So who are we?...

A closer look at MAP

• Highly modularized collection of “learning objects” including:– over 150 applets and applications extensive FLASH

animation library– Video and Lab interfacing via JAVA applications– student tutorial modules– extensive interactive questions with attention paid to

conceptual questions as well as numeric response• Objects can be stand-alone or embedded

within user designed navigation tools

Some terms…

• Learning object: a small, concept focused content item (applet, Flash animation, QT movie etc)

• Applet: small program created in JAVA or Flash and intended to be transmitted via the web

• Application: stand-alone program in JAVA to be installed and run locally on a user’s machine

• MAP is built on a constructivist learning model and all learning objects are designed to encourage (demand?) student interactivity

• Concept focused• Tutorial modules are usually designed to involve

a pair of students in conversation but can run “solo”

Pedagogic Design and Philosophy

• Address pre-conceptions• Augment student experience• Bridge the transition from conceptual to

quantitative• Aid in the visualization of complex phenomena

Classifying Applets by Function

• they are designed to address a well-known preconception (i.e. one identified in the research literature)

• they are entirely qualitative in both “input” and “output”• they allow the student to draw directly on the applet

the expected outcome and then to compare this with the “correct” result simulated by the computer

• the applets are designed to be attractive and “non-intimidating”

Designing Applets which Address Pre-conceptions

Conceptual Applets...

• 2-Dimensional Motion (vectoral nature of acceleration

and velocity) • Encourages “interaction”

or playwith the ideas of velocity and acceleration

Applets that augmentstudent experience...

•"This gadget really helps visualize it!"•"I can see it happening."•"It was nice to see the ball moving so we can picture the skateboarder or whatever we are looking at"•"… good assignment …"•"The assignment was good, but it would be better if it did not take 10 minutes to get into the program. I could probably do it from home much faster"•"It would have been okay, except for the problems with the computer"•"This program is interesting, but not for a very long time"•"I thought learning this way was extremely difficult and hard to understand. I prefer note taking and chances to ask you questions when they arise."•"I'm not good with the computer - too slow of a connection"•"This was awesome and fun"

• Circuit Builder

Applets that Bridge the Transition from Conceptual to Quantitative

• The Incline• Visualization of force

vectors• Graphical

visualization tools• Can stimulate “what

if…” questions

Applets that Bridge the Transition from Conceptual to Quantitative

• Man on the Ladder

Applets that Bridge the Transition from Conceptual to Quantitative

• Atwood’s Pulley

Applets that Bridge the Transition from Conceptual to Quantitative

• Sonic Booms

Applets that Help the Student Visualize Complex Phenomena

• Car on a banked roadway

Applets that Help the Student Visualize Complex Phenomena

• Ripple Tank

Applets that Help the Student Visualize Complex Phenomena

• Slit-Diffraction

Applets that Help the Student Visualize Complex Phenomena

• Thin Film Interference

Applets that Help the Student Visualize Complex Phenomena

Gordon Research Conference on Visualization in

Science & Education,Oxford, July 2005

Mahaffy (Chair)Martin (Workshop Leader)Geelan (Workshop Leader)

Flowing water in SE Jordan

NASA Satellite Image

NSF Funding (Research on Learning and Education)

“Touching Molecules with Bare Hands:” Augmented

RealityArthur Olson, Scripps Research

InstituteCo-Vice Chair, 2007 Gordon Research

Conference

New Emphases Role of Haptics in Visualization Best practices in production and dissemination of

educational visualizations Visualization in genomics and systems biology Computer graphics / cognitive science interface Visualization for public understanding of science Physical models and touch in forming mental

models Geo-Wall 3D visualization applied to other

disciplines

http://www.grc.org/

Post-Conference Minigrant ProgramSetting Directions for Visualization Research

• Promote new collaboration between investigators in at least two disciplines

• Include expertise in visualization from both the production and evaluation communities or from both a scientific and the learning or cognitive communities.

• Only one third of the submitted proposals funded• Previous workshop and mini-grant program

evaluated by L. Jones, et. al. in Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2005, 6 (3), 136-149

Student View of Visualization: What do They See?

• Mary Jane Shultz, Tufts University, Medford, MA• Ghislain Deslongchamps, U. of New Brunswick, Canada • Mike Stieff, UC Davis, CA • Mary Hegarty, UC Santa Barbara, CA

• Focus: Using eye tracker tools to refine student interaction with the relevant parts of electrostaic potential surfaces and Flash animations of molecular mechanics to generate guidelines for creation of images that focus the viewer’s attention while conveying a specific point.

Addressing Misconceptions in the Understanding of Global Climate

Change Through Visualization • Mike Stieff, UC-Davis, CA• Brian Martin, King’s University College, Edmonton• David Geelan, University of Alberta, Edmonton• Robert Simmon, NASA – GSFC, MD

Focus: produce prototypes of visualizations representing satellite data over time in response to an inventory of misconceptions concerning global climate change to study the role scientific visualizations play in bringing about conceptual change in secondary students.

Developing and Understanding

Animations of Cloud Formation • Oswaldo Garcia, San Francisco State University, CA• Barbara Tversky, Columbia University • Kristin Henry, GalaxyGoo, CA

• Focus: Are animations broken into natural steps more effective than continuously running ones in explaining cloud formation to geoscience students?

Enhancing Students' Spatial Skills with Geographical Information Systems

• Bob Kolvoord, James Madison University , VA• David Uttal, Northwestern University, IL• Danny Edelson, Northwestern University , IL

• Focus: a pilot study in grades 4 and 7 exploring the impact of the use of geographic information system (GIS) software on student spatial cognition skills.

Spatial Visualization from Nano- (and smaller) Scales to Planetary Scales

• Niescja E. Turner, Florida Institute of Technology, FL• Luis Martínez, University of Texas at El Paso, TX • Mary Hegarty, University of California at Santa Barbara,

CA

• Focus: Does 3D computer visualization help low or high-spatial visualizers the most and does scale and experience matter?

• Present– NSF Global Climate Change (Mahaffy, Stief, Geelan, Simmon, Martin)

– CRYSTAL Visualizing the Unseen• Grade 5 science: visualizing Carbon Dioxide as it applies to

climate and chemistry (Gustafson, McDougal at al)

• Applying GEOWALL to visualizing chemical structures (Mahaffy, Martin, Vederas, et al)

• Visualizing subatomic phenomena (Martin, Brouwer, Visser et al)

– CRYSTAL Global Climate Change • Science 10: Energy Flow in Global Systems (Geelan et al)

– CRYSTAL Visualization: State of the Art Review (Philips et al)

The King’s Crystal Center for Visualization in Science

• Hardware/Software Capabilities– GEOWALL– QuickTimeVR– HyperChem– Flash/ JAVA/ VPython– BRYCE and Blender 3D rendering environments

• Expertise– Martin (Physics & Astronomy), Mahaffy (Chemistry)– Working With Leading Visualization Researchers Bringing Together

the Learning of Science and the Science of Learning– Undergraduate Programmers (starting May, 2006)– Collaborative teams with researchers and classroom teachers

The King’s Crystal Center for Visualization in Science – The Present

Welcome to GEOWALL!

GEOWALL in use during lecture at the Gordon Research Conference in Visualization in Science

July 2005, Oxford UK

I. Geowall – Technical Considerations

• Uses 2-matched DLP projectors (“left” & “right”) each outputting a plane polarized image rotated 900 wrt the other.

• Screen is “daylite” type – polarization preserving

• Eyeglasses “decode” left and right eye information – your brain does the rest!

Geowall – Technical Considerations

Left-channel image Right-channel image

Left channel image is projected through the

left channel DLP projector and is plane-polarized as shown

Right channel image is projected through the

right channel DLP projector and is plane-

polarized as shown

Geowall – Technical Considerations

• Projectors are stacked vertically with 3 rotational and translational degrees-of-freedom

• Computer should be equipped with a video board capable of running 2 monitors

• Passive stereo – image “stacking”

• Crude alignment can be achieved using separate monitor windows from each projector

Geowall – Technical Considerations

• Left and Right channel polaroids are placed in front of the lens – avoid touching the lenses as conducted heat will quickly (< 1 hour) degrade filters

• Final alignment achieved by using stereoviewer and the Geowall alignment image

Not quite!BetterGood (not perfect)!

Congratulations – you are readyCongratulations – you are ready for stereo projection!for stereo projection!

More on Creating Stereo Images

• Digital Camera– Two images

contain all of the stereo information needed for your brain to produce a stereo pair

Translate camera L to R

More on Creating Stereo Images

• 3D Image rendering software– Blender – freeware

(outstanding package but steep learning curve)

– Bryce (more accessible but not free)

• Either offset “camera” or scene and render both L and R channel images.

III. Free Software that Supports Stereo Projection

• Chemistry/Biology:– JMOL– Pymol– VMD– Protein Explorer

• Physics/Astronomy– VPython– Astrowall suite– Wallview

GEOWALL – 3 examples

• Looking a CRYSTAL Structure (VMD)• Visualizing Hoffmann Structures (VMD)• Visualizing the magnetic field in a solenoid

(VPYTHON)

Visualizing the World Too Small To See:

Small Matters Christina deMatteis, University of Nottingham

Tudor Bumback, Age 13, Romania

IUPAC/SAW Global Poster CompetitionIt’s a Chemical World

The Importance of Multiple

Representations at the Molecular LevelRoy Tasker, Univ. Western

SydneyModels in Chemistry

“The most powerful thing you can do when you’re learning chemistry is to zoom down, in your mind’s eye, to the molecular level and try to imagine what is going on and in a sense, try to understand the personalities of the reactants and products…

Having each type of model show a different aspect is ideal. Because then students don’t look at a particular model and say: that’s reality.”

Importance of Different Levels of “SeeingChemistry”

P. Mahaffy, Journal of Chemical Education, Jan. 2006, 83, 50 - 55

• Future– Provide an ongoing resource for CRYSTAL projects

• Expertise in: Molecular Modeling, FLASH/ActionScript, JAVA, BRYCE, QuickTimeVR, GEOWALL, etc

• Access to programmers and visualization specialists• Quick prototyping and “proof of concept”

The King’s Crystal Center for Visualization in Science