Teaching with a Visual Tree of Life

• Goals and Context

• Methods

• Findings and Recommendations

Teaching with a Visual Tree of Life

• Goals and Context

• Methods

• Findings and Recommendations

Goals

• Understand how teachers currently teach about the evolutionary relationships between organisms

• Identify common teaching tasks

• Determine how future software might facilitate those tasks

On the shoulders of Giants…

Science, Vol 300, Issue 5626, p 1694, 13 June 2003

Teaching with a Visual Tree of Life

• Goals and Context

• Methods

• Findings and Recommendations

Methods

• Interviews• P.E.E.C.U.E.• Survey

• Focus Group• Teaching Observation• Heuristic Evaluation

Teaching with a Visual Tree of Life

• Goals and Context

• Methods

• Findings and Recommendations

Key Findings & Recommendations

• Understanding the Educational Context

• Offering Valuable Educational Messages

• Making a Visualization Usable

Key Findings & Recommendations

• Understanding the Educational Context

• Offering Valuable Educational Messages

• What Makes a Visualization Usable?

Crossing the Gap

“This is scientific information by scientists for scientists.”

–High school teacher

Valuable Educational Messages

• The Nature of Science: Alternatives and Evidence

• Misconceptions Abound: Tree-thinking takes training

• An appreciation for Biodiversity: The Wow! Button

• A Biological Index to Information

Valuable Educational Messages

• The Nature of Science: Alternatives and Evidence

• Misconceptions Abound: Tree-thinking takes training

• An appreciation for Biodiversity: The Wow! Button

• A Biological Index to Information

Valuable Educational Messages

• The Nature of Science: Alternatives and Evidence

• Misconceptions Abound: Tree-thinking takes training

• An appreciation for Biodiversity: The Wow! Button

• A Biological Index to Information

Common ancestor of birds and dinosaurs

Common ancestor of

humans and dinosaurs

Evolutionary Relationships

……..Progress! The Star!! It’s all about Me!

tim

e

Node flip movie

Valuable Educational Messages

• The Nature of Science: Alternatives and Evidence

• Misconceptions Abound: Tree-thinking takes training

• An appreciation for Biodiversity: The Wow! Button

• A Biological Index to Information

cute vert pics

cute vert

pics plus more

“I’d like them to have an underlying feeling of

the unity of life with this marvelous diversity…to internalize that the carrots and we are cousins!”

–Director of zoo education program

New

Yor

k T

Imes

Valuable Educational Messages

• The Nature of Science: Alternatives and Evidence

• Misconceptions Abound: Tree-thinking takes training

• An appreciation for Biodiversity: The Wow! Button

• A Biological Index to Information

What Makes a Visualization Usable?

• Solve the Overwhelm Factor

• Simple, Teachable Tree Views

• Connect with the Familiar: History, Common Names and Pictures

What Makes a Visualization Usable?

• Solve the Overwhelm Factor

• Simple, Teachable Tree Views

• Connect with the Familiar: History, Common Names and Pictures

Source: UCMP’ s Life on Earth page http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/alllife/threedomains.html

What Makes a Visualization Usable?

• Solve the Overwhelm Factor

• Simple, Teachable Tree Views

• Connect with the Familiar: History, Common Names and Pictures

Conclusion and Future Work

Involve Teachers!

• Test recommended features for learning outcomes

• Continue user-centered design and development

Our Clients• CIPRES outreach• Tree of Life web project• HCIL biodiversity information visualization• Ed experts at UCMP and University of Pittsburgh

A big THANK YOU!!

The CIPRES Project www.phylo.org Advisors Nancy Van House and Brent Mishler

Our participants Cynthia Parr at HCIL Kim Rathbun Zachary’s Pizza on Solano UCMP

This work is funded by the CIPRES projectBUILDING THE TREE OF LIFE: A National Resource for Phyloinformatics and Computational Phylogenetics

Part of the NSF Information Technology Research program

Alternative Trees

conservative

Q: Where does Diplura go?

Shares filiform cerci and extra sperm tubules with Insects

Shares reduced Malphigian tubules,and compound eyes with Entognatha

“This is scientific information by scientists for scientists.”

–High school teacher

“I’d like them to have an underlying feeling of the unity of life with this marvelous diversity…to internalize that the carrots and we are cousins!”

–Director of zoo education program