Every picture tells a story: learning to look at space scientific data images

• Authors: George Tuthill;Stephanie Stevenson
• Venue: SC '98 Proceedings of the 1998 ACM/IEEE conference on Supercomputing
• Year: 1998

Understanding scientific image data requires us to connect two-dimensional images to three-dimensional reality. Our knowledge of space science changes as our skill for seeing what is in the night sky increases. With eyes as their only tools, early people surveyed the skies, telling stories to explain what they observed. For centuries humankind studied the sky adding new perceptions to the old. The advent of telescopes provided even better means of observation. This clearer sight contributed to a new understanding of what occurs in our universe. The telescope led to the discovery of new stars and planets. Our knowledge of the heavens changed as we revised our old understanding to fit the new observations. Today with tools developed by NASA we can see beyond our solar system to the far universe. Space probes and the Hubble Space Telescope send pictures back to earth giving expanded views of objects in and beyond our solar system. For the first time we have a chance to see the heavenly bodies up close. Understanding what we see is our task. We use our previous knowledge added to new observations to begin to unravel the mysteries of space. It is up to us to learn to look at these images to gain a new view of space.Cognitive research disproves the statement; "Every picture is worth a thousand words." Image processing in the human brain occurs at two hundred million bits per second, while language processing occurs at one hundred bits per second, literally every picture tells a story of one million words. Scientific image data supplies an immediate visual appeal to student. Images and image processing increase the rate of data perception and interpretation by the human brain. By visualizing information students gain the power to see data in new and unique ways opening the door to original scientific discovery.Through funding from NASA, faculty at Montana State University and classroom teachers from across the nation have developed an extensive library of on-line and interactive K-12 science education materials for teaching astronomy. Closely aligned with the NRC National Science Education Standards, these web-based lessons make maximum use of exciting on-line NASA resources, data, and images. In addition to classroom-ready materials using contemporary teaching strategies, MSU's Center for Educational Resources (CERES) project has developed several on-line NASA data search engines and two graduate level distance learning courses, available over the Internet to K-12 teachers.The goals of the CERES project are to:• map NASA-based resources to the National Reacearch Council's (NRC) National Science Education Standards (NSES)• increase understanding of scientific image data for K-12 teachers and students( a tutorial is under development)• bring NASA -based electronic sources and data to classrooms• provide exemplary classroom ready activities for students on lineon line• Internet-based courses for in-service K-12 teachers