seminar
Visualizing Global Climate Change for Middle School Students
Citizens
need to sort out conflicting messages about climate change, energy
conservation, and healthy nutritional choices. Strengthening the ability to
sort out conflicting explanations and make sense of complex scientific
phenomena is essential today. This talk
will explore how scientific visualizations of global climate change, as part of
a technology-enhanced pedagogically-sound curriculum, can improve understanding
of the factors impacting accumulation of greenhouse gases and the role personal
decisions can play in the process.
Scientific
visualizations allow students to conduct virtual experiments about complex
situations such as global climate change, airbag safety, or home insulation. I
define visualizations as interactive, computer-based animations of scientific
phenomena including models, simulations, and virtual experiments. Visualizations can help students interpret
persuasive messages about climate change by allowing them to explore personally-relevant
questions. This research is part of studies involving over 30,000 middle and
high school students and 350 teachers conducted by the National Science
Foundation funded Technology Enhanced Learning in Science (TELS) center. The
results illustrate promising uses of dynamic, interactive visualizations of
phenomena to promote lifelong science learning.
<p>Marcia C.
Linn is a professor of development and cognition specializing in education in
mathematics, science, and technology in the Graduate School of Education at the
University of California, Berkeley. She is a member of the National Academy of
Education and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, the American Psychological Association, and the Association for
Psychological Science. She has served as Chair of the AAAS Education Section
and as President of the International Society of the Learning Sciences. She
directs the NSF-funded Technology-enhanced Learning in Science (TELS) center.
Board service includes the American Association for the Advancement of Science
board, the Graduate Record Examination Board of the Educational Testing
Service, the McDonnell Foundation Cognitive Studies in Education Practice
board, and the Education and Human Resources Directorate at the National
Science Foundation. She has twice been a fellow at the Center for Advanced
Study in Behavioral Sciences.</p>