This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project from Planet Earth Science (PES), Inc., the Earth Data Multimedia Instrument (EDMI), will be a software-based, client-side, data-visualization instrument that will bring to the K-12 science classroom much the same data visualization capabilities of advanced research laboratories: the ability to acquire real-time data from the internet and to manipulate these data locally and display geographically-based information. The EDMI will build upon Internet data access capabilities currently under development at Planet Earth Science, Inc. The EDMI is an innovation in educational courseware authoring capabilities, an innovation that responds to the need for interactive courseware to enable secondary-school science students to discover and understand actual Earth-science data sets. Embedded as a plug-in ('Xtra') to the run-time software products made with Macromedia Director and Authorware, the EDMI acquires the advanced interactive multimedia capabilities of these authoring platforms. The EDMI adds the capability to visualize and manipulate the most up-to-date Earth data. As such, the EDMI fully complements and extends the usefulness of the NSF sponsored WorldWatcher program and other data visualization programs available on the marketplace. The initial user population will be America's middle-school Earth science classrooms, although the Instrument can also find application in a wide range of formal and informal instructional settings.
As the enabling technology for data discovery software in middle schools, the EDMI will pioneer a new level of pedagogy, where the ability to access and visualize large data sets becomes routine even for pre-teen students. Whether included in the next series of Planet Earth Science's award-winning courseware, or sold as a Director/Authorware plug-in to other software developers, the EDMI realizes the potential of the Internet as a data-delivery network.
