Scientific Visualization for Secondary and Post–Secondary Schools Aaron C

24 Scientific Visualization for Secondary and Post–Secondary Schools Aaron C. Clark & Eric N. Wiebe North Carolina State University’s Department of marily brought about by advances in technology have Math, Science, and Technology Education along created new opportunities to use similar tools to pro- with Wake Technical Community College’s mote and enhance the study of the physical, biologi- Engineering Technology Division and North cal, and mathematical sciences. Carolina’s Department of Public Instruction These new courses are designed to articulate into (Vocational Education Division), sought ways in scientific visualization and technical graphics curric- which to build a strong secondary program in scien- ula at both two-year and four-year colleges and uni- tific and technical visualization, focusing on the use versities through the Tech-Prep initiative. of sophisticated graphics tools to study mathematics Articulation between schools allows for a broader and the sciences. Momentum for this high school- range of students to have a visual science course level scientific visualization curriculum developed out count for admission into a college or university. The of a revision of the complete high school technical courses have the potential to replace the fundamental graphics curriculum used throughout the state drafting course required for most degrees in engi- (North Carolina Public Schools, 1997). It became neering and technology. clear that a scientific visualization track could both The proposed student populations taking the sci- broaden the scope of the current technical graphics entific visualization courses are traditional vocational curriculum and attract a new group of students to track students and pre-college students who plan on technical graphics. studying in scientific, engineering, and technical For the past four years, educators from North fields. The graphic tools used in these courses can Carolina have met to develop and improve a new help students to understand abstract and numerical sequence of courses in scientific and technical visual- concepts and understand how these graphic tools are ization. The main goal of these courses is to teach used in the sciences, business and industry, finance, technical graphics to a new audience: science, tech- and virtually all major areas of our economy. nology, technical, and pre-engineering students. The courses are designed to reflect a broader application Background of computer graphics techniques in the workplace Technical graphics have long been recognized as and represents a rich area in which technical graphics a powerful communications tool by professional teachers at all levels of education can be involved. engineers, scientists, mathematicians, statisticians, These new courses complement, rather than replace, and other technical professionals. The use of techni- more mainstream technical graphics courses in archi- cal graphics to convey scientific and technical data tectural and mechanical drafting currently being taught. and concepts has a long tradition in print media. While contemporary high school drafting (tech- William Playfair, working in the 18th century, is nical graphics), technology education, and college often recognized as being one of the earliest practi- programs now use sophisticated graphics tools to cre- tioners of using graphics to communicate technical ate two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional data to the public at large (Tufte, 1983). More (3-D) wire-frame and solid models, their focus has recently, theorists in the 1970s and 1980s began remained narrow. It is now apparent that changes pri- work on a modern basis for technical communication 25 with graphics (Bertin, 1983; Cleveland, 1985; Tufte, demand for 3-D modeling tools meet with affordable 1983). This work, using graphic design, rhetoric, and desktop computers capable of running this class of psychological theory as its basis, attempted to try and software. Now, both 2-D and 3-D graphics tools understand the appropriate match of information to were available to the general public. During this time be conveyed, graphic technique, and audience to period, professionals in fields related to graphics also be served. saw an increased demand for technological and com- Through most of this period, scientific and tech- puter competencies among both teachers and their nical data continued to be produced using mainly students (Technology Assessment Project, 1999). manual methods by professional graphicians. During This is coupled with an understanding of the impor- the 1980s, improved printing and computer technol- tant role that hands-on activities can play in the ogy combined with demands from the public math, science, and technology classrooms increased the use of technical graphics in textbooks (Luna, 1998). and newspapers. The success of the national news- paper USA Today is subscribed partly to its revolu- Transformation to Scientific Visualization tionary use of full-color artwork and extensive use of In the 1990s technical and engineering graphics informational charts and graphs (Brock, 1998). courses in secondary and post-secondary institutions Though now being widely viewed by the public, across the country began facing criticism concerning these graphics were still being produced largely by their content. Even after the move to 2-D/3-D com- trained professionals. puter-aided drafting (CAD), many still questioned The 1980s also brought into use the color graph- whether it was relevant to teach a highly specialized ics workstation. In combination with custom-writ- mechanical or architectural graphics language to a ten programs, graphics workstations were used to broad population of students (Raudebaugh, 1996). produce graphic visualizations of the masses of data In this context, many professionals and researchers in being produced by a new generation of supercom- graphics began to explore the role graphics played in puters (Friedhoff & Benzon, 1989; McCormick, a larger instructional and work context. Defanti & Brown, 1987). During the period of the During the 1980s and 1990s, a resurgence of late 1980s and early 1990s, individuals began to interest in the importance visualization plays in suc- bring together the technical communication theories cess (both in the classroom and in professional life) of effective graphic communication with the new emerged. Several researchers recognized that the cre- flexibility and power that computers brought to pro- ation and manipulation of both traditional and com- fessionals (Keller & Keller, 1993; Patrikalakis, 1991; puter-generated graphics can improve visual commu- Senay & Ignatius, 1990). Still, the audience was pro- nications in engineering-related professions (e.g., fessional researchers who could hire staff to program Bertoline & Miller, 1989; Rodriguez, 1992; Sorby & and produce these visualizations on high-end com- Baartmans, 1994; Zsombor-Murray, 1990). Though puter technology. In tandem with the development many in the technical graphics field who teach at sec- of supercomputing graphics, the desktop publishing ondary and post-secondary educational institutions revolution brought, for the first time, computer have discussed the benefits of traditional technical graphics tools to the general public. Now the types graphics as a means of developing spatial visualiza- of tools being used to create graphics for the newspa- tion skills, this was still envisioned by most as hap- pers could also be purchased by the average comput- pening in the context of mechanical or architectural er user. New books became available to help guide design graphics. During this time period, however, scientists, engineers, and technicians in creating their science educators also recognized the importance of own visualizations without the use of specially enhancing the visualization abilities of students and trained staff (Kosslyn, 1994; Tufte, 1990). In addi- professionals (Baker & Pilburn, 1997). Science edu- tion to general purpose graphing tools, off-the-shelf cators were, as it can be imagined, using very differ- scientific visualization tools became more generally ent examples to show the use of graphics than would available, taking the place of custom-programmed typically be seen in a mechanical engineering graph- tools that researchers were using to create more spe- ics classroom. cialized visualizations. In the early 1990s we began to study how some The mid-1990s saw the greatly increased hands-on activities used in engineering graphics 26 classes could be used with a broader population of science and technical majors (Wiebe, 1992). In this • Basic design principles scientific visualization course, rather than using the • Graphing/plotting documentation of mechanical objects as the vehicle • Image processing for the creation of graphics, the communication of • 2-D/3-D modeling more conceptual scientific and technical ideas and • Animation and simulation empirical results were used as a basis for creating • Presentation and publication graphics. We felt graphics communication principles formalized by theorists in the 1970s and 1980s and The curriculum team, consisting of teachers and applied in professional science and technical profes- administrators from both secondary and post-sec- sions could also be applied in technical graphics ondary education, decided to have five major compe- courses at the secondary and post-secondary levels tencies for the first-year curriculum (Table 1). The (Bertoline, Wiebe, Miller & Mohler, 1997). This first competency

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