Edited and revised: Overview of the international and interdisciplinary Gordon Research Conference on Visualization in Science and Education and info on key cognitive science and other visualization researchers. History of the conference, NSF workshop, and research on learning with visualizations.

1. International Perspectives:
Visualization in Science and Education
Keynote Presentation for CINF Symposium
ACS National Meeting
San Francisco - Spring 2010
Liz Dorland
Washington University in St. Louis
dorland@wustl.edu
slideshare.net/ldorland
(revised version)

2. What should we teach?
How should we teach it?
How do we decide?
• Introduction - Learning from images
• A Little History
• NSF Workshop on Visualization (2001)
• Gordon Research Conference on
Visualization in Science and Education
• Interdisciplinary Participants& Research

3. Audience? Purpose? Developer?
Public
Informal Science
Understanding
Education Education
of Science
Scientific
Visualization
Scientific
Public Research Public
Understanding Understanding
of Science of Science

4. Napoleon’s March
www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/minard

5. Statistical Graph - Charles Minard (1861)
Adapted by Aaron Walburg and Stephen Hartzog (1996)

6. Web of Science
www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/project.cfm?id=434

7. Visual Complexity
www.visualcomplexity.com/

8. The Visual Elements Periodic Table
www.rsc.org/chemsoc/visualelements

9. www.rsc.org/chemsoc/visualelements/pages/ionisation.html

10. Periodic Landscapes

11. Ionization Energy Landscapes
http://www.rsc.org/chemsoc/visualelements/pages/ionisation.html

12. Visual Elements Animation Links
www.rsc.org/chemsoc/visualelements/pages/animate.html

13. Decoding…
What are those balls?
DNA-binding domain of the GAL4 transcriptional regulatory
protein. Lysine 18 sits in the major groove of DNA,
recognizing the DNA sequence CGG. Polyview-3D
Adrenergic G-protein coupled receptor
functionally solubilized by self-assembly
into a 10 nm diameter Nanodisc. Normal transcription requires both the
Steve Sligar - U of Illinois DNA-binding domain (BD) and the activation
domain (AD) of a transcriptional activator (TA).
Science Creative Quarterlywww.scq.ubc.ca

14. Multiple Representations
What do students see? > 8 million!
Google Images: “DNA”

15. Bruce Alberts
“The Cell as a Collection of Protein Machines:
Preparing the Next Generation of Molecular
Biologists.” Bruce Alberts - Cell 92: 291-4. (1998)
~ 300 citations

16. Virtual Museum of Minerals and Molecules
Chime ->Jmol
virtual-museum.soils.wisc.edu/displays.html

17. MDL Cool Chime Sites - 1997

18. Levels of Representation
Symbolic Macroscopic
H2O
Sub-
Microscopic

19. Google: “Dissolving NaCl”
NCSSM: Flash Animation from North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

20. What do students see?
www.ccds.charlotte.nc.us/mackenzie/Chem/

21. Google Images: “NaCl dissolving”

22. What do students see?
Molecules?
Ions?
Colored spheres?
How do we know?

23. “Representational Competence?”
Roy Tasker
Tom Greenbowe

24. Alex Johnstone: JCE 1983
How many chunks?
• Miller number 7
• Working memory Organic Chem Topics
After repeated attempts
• Chunking
• Perception filter
• Information
Processing Model

25. Ed Psych & Visualization
• Miller - Magic #7 (1956)
• Pavio - Dual Coding (1980s)
• Sweller et. al. (1980s)
- Cognitive Load Theory
• Mayer & Moreno (1990s)
- Multimedia Principles

26. NSF Workshop

27. Peter Atkins (Oxford) – GRC Speaker 1994, 2007
Loretta Jones (U Northern Colorado) – Speaker 1998
www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/RP/issues/2005_3/

28. www.grc.org/conferences.aspx?id=0000385

29. The Conference brings together:
• physical and biological scientists
• graphics specialists
• cognitive scientists
In a forum for the critical examination of:
• the uses of visual images in the physical and
biological sciences and in mathematics
• the tools used to create these images, and of
• their effectiveness in conveying scientific information
to specialist and novice audiences

30. Visualization in Science & Education
Cognitive scientists’understanding of human
perception and cognition guides the research and
educational application of visualizations.
Recent Conferences have been preceded by
workshop tutorials on evaluating and creating better
visualizations.
Small, peer-reviewed mini-grants have been awarded
post-Conference tofoster the multidisciplinary
research needed to create effective visualization.

31. Visualization in Science & Education
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• Engineering
• Psychology
• Computer Science/Graphics
• Earth Sciences
• Mathematics
• Cognitive Science & the Learning Sciences

32. 2007 GRC Speaker:
Donna Cox, NCSA &UIUC
access.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Stories/supertwister/
Museum of Science &Industry
Visualization by Donna Cox, Robert Patterson,
Stuart Levy, Matt Hall, Alex Betts, NCSA

33. 2005 GRC Speaker:
Pat Hanrahan (Stanford)
Computer Graphics Research
Developer of RenderMan software
Winner of two Academy Awards

34. 2005 GRC Speaker:
Mary Hegarty, Psychology
UC Santa Barbara
www.psych.ucsb.edu/~hegarty/visual_displays.php
“We are interested in how people make sense of these
complex visual-spatial displays and how they use them in
learning, reasoning and problem solving.”
“Eye tracking provides an online measure of the information
that a viewer is accessing while reasoning and solving
problems with complex visual displays.”

35. 2003 & 2009 GRC Speaker
Barbara Tversky, Psychology
Stanford & Columbia University
“Animation, Does it Facilitate Learning?”
www-psych.stanford.edu/~bt/
Diagrams:www-psych.stanford.edu/~bt/diagrams/papers/
Space: www-psych.stanford.edu/~bt/space/papers/
Events: www-psych.stanford.edu/~bt/events/papers/
• Animations have not been proven more effective than
equivalent static graphics.
• Animations that are invented and used in exploring
phenomena and data, often by experts in pursuit of
understanding, may be effective.
• Creating animations may confer benefits to the creators.
• Expertise in the specific content and animation may make
some animations effective.

36. 2005 GRC Speaker:
Shaaron Ainsworth, Psychology
University of Nottingham
Learning with Visual & Multiple Representations and
Interactive Technologies
• examine how different combinations
of representations influence
learning
• identify a set of design principles for
successful multi-representational
software
• develop a model of how people
learn with multiple representations

37. Ainsworth

38. “On the Surface of Things”
Felice Frankel & George Whitesides
2007 ACS Priestly Medalist
2005 GRC Speaker

39. “She Calls It ‘Phenomena’
Everyone Else Calls It Art”
Felice Frankel, NYT June 2007
2001 GRC Speaker

40. Donald Sadoway, MIT (with Felice Frankel)
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
web.mit.edu/i-m/picturing/pict_stu04.html

41. MIT-NSF: “Picturing to Learn”
web.mit.edu/i-m/picturing/pict_students.html
“We compared scores on the final exams 2004 vs 2005 and saw
evidence in support of deeper understanding of concepts
addressed in the picturing homework assignments."

42. Collaborative Environments
SRI: Robert Kozma
chemsense.org/about/papers.html

43. 2003 GRC Speaker:
Marcia Linn, UC Berkeley
Web-based Inquiry Science Environmen(WISE)Making
complex science visible

44. Chemical Reactions:
Visualize & Reflect
Jennifer Chiu
How did making water molecules in
Molecular Workbench relate to the balanced
equation of 2H2+ O2 ->2H2O
“They are related because in order to have no atoms left
over in the workbench, we had to get a certain amount of
oxygen atoms and hydrogen atoms. This number is the
same as the ratios in the balanced equation (2 H2, 1 O2,
and you end up with 2H2O molecules).”

45. Student Results
Increased connections among symbolic and molecular
representations, limiting reactants, and conservation of mass.
Pretest Post test
If only the molecules in the
closed container below react (1)
according to the equation, KR
draw the expected products in
the box:
2S + 3O2 ->2SO3 RB (1)
BW (2)
Draw the container after the reaction.

46. Opportunities to participate
• TELS/WISE tested modules are free and available over the
internet (http://www.wise.berkeley.edu)
• TELS software is available and open source
(SAIL: http://sail.sourceforge.net)
• TELS Assessments are available and have accepted
psychometric properties; TELS Professional development model
enables teachers to quickly begin using modules and design
their own additional supports
(see http://TELSCenter.org)
• TELS Design Principles database is on-line and available for
use in courses, customization activities, and design
(see http://www.design-principles.org)

47. GRC Viz
Mt. Holyoke
2001
Oxford
2003, 2005, 2009
Rhode Island
2007 + 2011
www.grc.org

48. Learning in a Virtual World: Medical Education
www.slideshare.net/ldorland

49. Learning & Instruction
Cognition & Instruction
Journal of Research in Science Teaching
International Journal of Science Education
Applied Cognitive Psychology
Journal of the Learning Sciences
Cognitive Science
Journals with Research on Visualization
Ed. Technology Research & Development
Journal of Science, Ed & Technology
British Journal of Educational Technology
Technology, Pedagogy and Education
Liz Dorland Canadian J of Learning Technology
Washington University in St. Louis Computers & Human Behavior
dorland@wustl.edu Learning, Media & Technology

50. Links
• http://www.stereo3dgallery.net/cgi_bin/gallery/view.cgi?username=jhart&catid=2
• http://geowall.geo.lsa.umich.edu/visualization.html
• http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/~hegarty/visual_displays.php
• http://www.telscenter.org/confluence/display/TIC/Using+Technology+Mediated+Visualizatio
ns+to+Support+Chemistry+Learning
• http://www.springerlink.com/content/y781h1p7561p3h71/?p=4fd759ee01aa46d7a9899a56
783a9b45&pi=2
• http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=active&domains=vis.berkeley.edu&q=Marcia+Li
nn+visualization&btnG=Search&sitesearch=
• http://www.slideshare.net/ldorland/acsbostonvizlrn
• GRC agendas - http://www.grc.org/conferences.aspx?id=0000385
• http://www.grc.org/programs.aspx?year=2007&program=visualiz
• http://www.rsc.org/Education/CERP/issues/2005_3/p2_jones.asp#
• http://pro3.chem.pitt.edu/workshop/