T235 EarthScope Education and Outreach: Connecting Students, Teachers, and the Public to the Dynamic Landscape of North America

Wednesday, 21 October 2009
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
C123

CASCADIA AND BASIN AND RANGE CONTENT MODULES FOR ACTIVE EARTH DISPLAY

Paper number: T235-12
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 10:50 AM – 11:05 AM

Authors

Abstract

The Active Earth Display is an interactive computer-based museum display for small museums, visitor centers, schools and libraries. It runs in a web browser using kiosk mode. The display consists of a customizable set of web pages about plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis. Low-cost and simple-to-implement, the Active Earth Display provides a way to engage audiences with earth science information without spending resources on a large exhibit.

Both Active Earth Display content sets highlight the connections between the landscape and the research and monitoring being conducted by EarthScope in partnership with regional monitoring networks.

Modules consist of chapters that focus on Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Tsunamis, Monitoring and Plate Tectonics with respect to the Pacific Northwest and Basin and Range regions in a reference to EarthScope. Content topics are easily explored using a web page button type navigation interface via a touch screen or mouse. A formative evaluation of general public users informed the interface design.

Chapters in the modules start with a general overview and proceed to detailed specifics. Each chapter utilizes at least one set of live or near real-time research data (often more than one). This exposes the general public to active ongoing research that is engaging, relevant to the individual user, and explained in easy to understand terms. All live content is updated each time a user accesses the individual page displaying the live data.

All scientific terms are defined using pop-up boxes. Leading questions are presented allowing the user to examine the content before accessing the answer via pop-up box. Diagrams and charts of research data have explanatory keys that allow users to self explore all content.

Content pages can be created and inserted in the Active Earth Display by utilizing the simple html coding.