Teaching Geoscience with Visualizations

Visualizing the Earth, its processes, and its evolution through time is a fundamental aspect of geoscience. The use of visualizations - diagrams, images, animations, maps, and more - is an essential tool in helping students to visualize the Earth and its processes (e.g., references in the recommended reading list and many others).

February, 2008 workshop

Teaching with New Geoscience Tools: Visualizations, Models, and Online Data

February 10-12, 2008 at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Visualization Collections

• Browse our collection of Visualizations on Geoscience Topics. The collection may be searched by specific geoscience topic.
• Other Sites with Extensive Visualization Collections. The following sites maintain large collections of visualizations. The collections span the variety of forms of visualizations including animations, still images, movies, models, and simulations.
• Browse our collection of Geoscience Datasets with Visualizations. This link will take you to a browseable collection of geoscience datasets that include visualizations, searchable by topic.
• Share references, resources or teaching materials so that they can be added to the collections.

How to Use Visualizations in Class

• Teaching Activities Using Visualizations: Search our collection of teaching activities that use visualizations.
  
• Teaching Activities Using Google Earth: Over 20 examples of Google Earth in geoscience classrooms.
  
• What Makes an Effective Visualization: If you are using visualizations in class, these guidelines will help you choose the best options.
• Ideas for Teaching with Visualizations: This page incorporates essays, powerpoint presentations and topical resources on using visualizations to explain ideas, explore and understand data, powerful emerging tools, and educational research on visualizations.

Lessons from Education and Cognitive Science Research

Research sheds light on why teaching with visualizations is effective.

• See Best Practices from Education and Cognitive Science Research
• Recommended Reading about Teaching and Learning with Visualizations
• 2006 GSA Annual Meeting Session on Visualization in the Geosciences
• Includes the presentation by Nora Newcombe entitled "Are Men Better Visualizers (PowerPoint 334kB Nov3 06)" (posted with author's permission)

Creating your own Visualizations

• Descriptions of Tools you can use to create visualizations
• Design principles for making effective visualizations

Participate in the Discussion

• Websites for leading Researchers in education and cognitive science
• Join the visualization listserv
• Browse the listserv archives