Interactive Immersion Learning: Flying through Weather Data onboard the GEOpod

Abstract

A bout 90 million people are gaming online in the United States, and most of them are student age. While the majority of the 2,000-plus online games are designed for entertainment, there are many that use this technology as effective supplements to traditional learning. Some include sophisticated visualizations that attempt to synthetically simulate real-world environments; but only a handful create an authentic experience by immersing the user in physical data, and these are generally limited to the use of canned data targeted for specific learning scenarios. However, 3D visualizations of real-time atmospheric data, including gridded model output, are commonplace in the meteorology community. The Integrated Data Viewer (IDV) developed at Unidata is an example of a framework that uses Java and VisAD to analyze and display 3D geoscience data (www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/idv). With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), a team of meteorologists and computer scientists at Millersville University have been working on the development of an interactive interface—a GUI plug-in—that offers an immersion-world experience within the IDV framework. The project, GEOScience Probe of Discovery (GEOpod), is an effort to provide users with the capability of navigating a virtual probe (the GEOpod) through a geophysical data volume while actuating virtual devices, all the while being guided by a tiered instructional design strategy. The goal is to create a design perspective that will appeal to “next-geners,” who are adept at gaming, and motivate them to intimately explore the data volume and take away a better understanding of meteorological concepts resulting in enhanced learning and discovery. What distinguishes the GEOpod from other synthetic environments such as Virtual Thunderstorm—developed by Gallus et al. in 2005— is the use of numerical model output based on actual physics that exhibits technical accuracy, fidelity, and scientific soundness. The GEOpod provides a number of useful devices and features to facilitate and enhance the exploration process, while maintaining a clean, easy-to-use interface that is accessible to novices and experts alike. The user enters and navigates the data volume using the intuitive controls, a compass, and an autopilot system capable of traversing isosurfaces with high fidelity. The Geocoding system provides ground truth over the current location or for locating a point of interest by name. User-selected meteorological variables are continuously updated on a customizable display panel on the GEOpod dashboard. Virtual devices can be actuated by the click of an icon. The particle imager displays hydrometeor type and ice crystal habits based on inputs of temperature and relative humidity. A virtual dropsonde provides vertical profiles over the closest grid point and allows users to save multiple soundings. A gridpoint displayer allows the user to view the underlying model grid framework. Using a noted-locations system, the user is able to annotate (and later view, edit, or save) parameter values at points of interest. In addition to autopilot, the user can fly manually and with variable speed to any point within the grid, or retrace the entire traverse, or save and send the full exercise to the instructor for replication and evaluation. The overarching purpose of GEOpod is to create an interesting, friendly, and interactive environment for learning about our atmosphere. So, in addition to the system capabilities, GEOpod missions have been developed that serve as guided exercises for the user. Each mission includes a set of learning objectives and questions for assessment supported by a detailed AffiliAtions: yalda, Zoppetti, and clark—millersville University, millersville, Pennsylvania; Mackin—education consultant, stratham, new Hampshire Corresponding Author: sepideh Yalda, Department of earth sciences, millersville University, Po Box 1002, millersville, Pa 17551 e-mail: sepi.Yalda@millersville.edu