Expanding New Frontiers of Space Weather Education
- Paper number
IAC-06-E1.P.4.02
- Author
Ms. Shaneen Braswell, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/Headquarters, United States
- Year
2006
- Abstract
It behooves Earth and Space Scientists to effectively articulate the excitement and potential of their fields to students and the public. The communication of scientific results and outstanding challenges act both to engage and attract students to the field and to inform the voting public of the value of the work being done. Presently, there has been an increasing concern of the demands for educators to provide the necessary breadth and depth of Earth Systems and Space Science concentrations to undergraduate curriculums. The Space Weather Visualizer is an educational tool, developed at the University of Michigan, geared toward educators and students of Earth Systems and Space Science to cultivate and broaden scientific thinking by exploiting instructive, dynamic lessons of data taken from real Earth events. It focuses on the origin of geomagnetic storms and its impacts on Earth’s systems through viewing the Earth’s magnetosphere in a three dimensional rotational plane. The active learning and comprehensive tool makes it easier to visualize real data by allowing the students to survey the dynamics of pressure, density, velocity and the magnetic field. Its web accessibility will increase public consciousness beyond its direct beneficiaries of educational settings. Educational supplements will be designed to complement Space Weather Visualizer to enhance undergraduate curriculums. In this presentation, it will demonstrate the educational, technical and programmatic aspects of the Space Weather Visualizer tool. An extensive formative assessment will be performed to bring the Space Weather Visualizer tool to its full potential to effectively engage and attract educators, students and the public.
- Abstract document