3-D science technology could offer alternative ways of teaching Standards of Learning material by increasing hands-on activity
Posted on April 17, 2008
Who knew Memorial Hall was big enough to fit the world into it? And who would have thought the world could be suspended by only three wires? Science on a Sphere makes it possible.
In honor of Earth Week, Science on a Sphere, a visual program projected on a six-foot-wide globe, was shown several times earlier this week. Science on a Sphere pairs the 3-D visualization with school curriculums and Virginia’s Standards of Learning to make education more hands-on, said Christina Tambini, a Master of Arts in teaching graduate student.
The program was shown Monday through Wednesday at 4 p.m., 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. in the Visual Projection Room of Memorial Hall.
“I think a lot of the programs they put on here now are SOL-oriented,” said Aly VanBenschoten, a senior at Spotswood High School and a volunteer for Science on a Sphere.
JMU is the only university to have a Science on a Sphere in the country, according to Tiffany Newbold, the associate director of the Shenandoah Valley Air Quality Initiate, or ShenAir.
The sphere suspends from a tall ceiling in the center of a dark room, between four projectors in nearby corners. For the images to appear on the globe, a central computer takes an image and divides it into four pieces, then four smaller computers send the images to the four projectors.
The projectors can give the illusion of a tilted, revolving earth just by altering the images they project. They can also display satellite images of the Earth’s typography, land temperatures, water currents and annual hurricane patterns. The satellites even show the electricity use of different continents and the solar system’s black hole activity.
“I would rather look at this than look at a textbook. It just brings things to life,” Tambini said. “It can really help cater to a lot of different learning abilities.”
According to Newbold, JMU received a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the projection system was installed in Memorial Hall in November 2006.
The program’s first feature, called “Footprints,” revealed how revolutionary this wrap-around screen can be for showing images. The globe became a disco ball of bright colors, transformed into a basketball and then morphed into arteries weaving their way through body tissue — all within minutes.
At some points of the program, the audience felt as if they could hold the the solar system in their own hands, as the Earth transformed into the other planets. The sphere showed breathtaking details of the planets’ surfaces, thanks to satellite imaging.
During the second segment, called “Blue Planet,” satellite images aided the narrator’s explanation of population activity in the last 200 years, the slender scale of the planet’s available fresh water.
The third portion of the program included three short data sets on Orcas, the 2004 hurricane season and coral reefs.
During the final feature, the audience was asked to move around the sphere to see different projections. They then witnessed the leaps and bounds technology has taken to capture satellite images of hurricanes moving through the planet’s oceans and coral reefs around the world.
ShenAir put on a similar program last year for Earth Week, and Newbold said she can set up special times for the program for mostly middle and high schools, civic clubs and other organizations.
Thirty-five JMU faculty and staff members are trained to run the permanent program, according to Newbold.
Universities and other experts coordinate with NOAA to create new programs, and NOAA frequently updates its Web site, which lists all the available programs.
The programs shown this week were produced by Goddard Space Flight Center, among other institutions, and the satellite pictures were provided by a handful of NASA satellites.
At least 100 data sets, on topics such as atmosphere, land, earth, the ocean and astronomy are available. Teachers interested in bringing their students to see Science on a Sphere can read a description and look at notable features of each program and data set on the Web site.
ShenAir can then tailor a playlist of programs that teachers request and download them to play on the globe.
“It’s kind of like putting an MP3 list together,” Newbold said.
