Physics and Astronomy Calendar

Space science and geoscience are rich in visual representations of systems that are extends across large domains of space and time in 3-D systems. 3-D aspects can be represented by a variety of means, including perspective and color. These visual representations are generally created by subject matter experts who view the representations as self-evident, but novices may not have the same reaction, particularly when the perspective image is of something unfamiliar. Similarly, color scales are often used to represent information (such as temperature, height, time, flux, or other quantities) with the implicit assumption that red is a low value and blue is a high value. But students may not take that color scale as the major visual clue in the representation. In this talk I will review two studies made by our group that investigate student responses to visual representation of information. In one case the focus was on a 2-D representation of 3-D information through perspective drawing. In the other case the focus was on the use of color to represent a third dimension. We find that novices do not necessarily interpret these representations as intended by their creators.