Teaching with a Visual Tree of Life Goals
- Slides: 53
Teaching with a Visual Tree of Life • Goals and Context • Methods • Findings and Recommendations
Teaching with a Visual Tree of Life • Goals and Context • Methods • Findings and Recommendations
Goals • Understand how teachers currently teach about the evolutionary relationships between organisms • Identify common teaching tasks • Determine how future software might facilitate those tasks
On the shoulders of Giants…
Science, Vol 300, Issue 5626, p 1694, 13 June 20
Teaching with a Visual Tree of Life • Goals and Context • Methods • Findings and Recommendations
Methods • Interviews • P. E. E. C. U. E. • Survey • Focus Group • Teaching Observation • Heuristic Evaluation
Teaching with a Visual Tree of Life • Goals and Context • Methods • Findings and Recommendations
Key Findings & Recommendations • Understanding the Educational Context • Offering Valuable Educational Messages • Making a Visualization Usable
Key Findings & Recommendations • Understanding the Educational Context • Offering Valuable Educational Messages • What Makes a Visualization Usable?
Crossing the Gap
“This is scientific information by scientists for scientists. ” –High school teacher
Valuable Educational Messages • The Nature of Science: Alternatives and Evidence • Misconceptions Abound: Tree-thinking takes training • An appreciation for Biodiversity: The Wow! Button • A Biological Index to Information
Valuable Educational Messages • The Nature of Science: Alternatives and Evidence • Misconceptions Abound: Tree-thinking takes training • An appreciation for Biodiversity: The Wow! Button • A Biological Index to Information
Valuable Educational Messages • The Nature of Science: Alternatives and Evidence • Misconceptions Abound: Tree-thinking takes training • An appreciation for Biodiversity: The Wow! Button • A Biological Index to Information
Evolutionary Relationships Common ancestor of birds and dinosaurs Common ancestor of humans and dinosaurs
time ……. . Progress! The Star!! It’s all about Me!
Node flip movie
Valuable Educational Messages • The Nature of Science: Alternatives and Evidence • Misconceptions Abound: Tree-thinking takes training • An appreciation for Biodiversity: The Wow! Button • A Biological Index to Information
cute vert pics
cute vert pics plus more
“I’d like them to have an underlying feeling of the unity of life with this marvelous diversity…to internalize that the carrots and we are cousins!” –Director of zoo education program
New York TImes
Valuable Educational Messages • The Nature of Science: Alternatives and Evidence • Misconceptions Abound: Tree-thinking takes training • An appreciation for Biodiversity: The Wow! Button • A Biological Index to Information
What Makes a Visualization Usable? • Solve the Overwhelm Factor • Simple, Teachable Tree Views • Connect with the Familiar: History, Common Names and Pictures
What Makes a Visualization Usable? • Solve the Overwhelm Factor • Simple, Teachable Tree Views • Connect with the Familiar: History, Common Names and Pictures
What Makes a Visualization Usable? • Solve the Overwhelm Factor • Simple, Teachable Tree Views • Connect with the Familiar: History, Common Names and Pictures
Conclusion and Future Work Involve Teachers! • Test recommended features for learning outcomes • Continue user-centered design and development
Our Clients • • CIPRES outreach Tree of Life web project HCIL biodiversity information visualization Ed experts at UCMP and University of Pittsburgh
A big THANK YOU!! The CIPRES Project www. phylo. org Advisors Nancy Van House and Brent Mishler Our participants Cynthia Parr at HCIL Kim Rathbun Zachary’s Pizza on Solano UCMP This work is funded by the CIPRES project BUILDING THE TREE OF LIFE: A National Resource for Phyloinformatics and Computational Phylogenetics Part of the NSF Information Technology Research program
Alternative Trees Q: Where does Diplura go? conservative Shares filiform cerci and extra sperm tubules with Insects Shares reduced Malphigian tubules, and compound eyes with Entognatha
“This is scientific information by scientists for scientists. ” –High school teacher
“I’d like them to have an underlying feeling of the unity of life with this marvelous diversity…to internalize that the carrots and we are cousins!” –Director of zoo education program