Earth viewer - App Assignment write ups PDF

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EDCI 767 Review of the App “EarthViewer” Laura Kaupas October 15, 2018

Laura Kaupas October 15, 2018 EDCI 767 - Review of the App “EarthViewer” The app EarthViewer (version 2.1) allows the user to view many aspects of the earth throughout its 4.5 billion years of history. EarthViewer was developed by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the app is available for free for both iOS and Android devices. EarthViewer is also available as a website on Google Chrome or Firefox, and can be downloaded as a ZIP file to use when offline (https://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/earthviewer). When you open the app, you are brought to a 3D map of earth today. You can move the earth on different axes to look at different parts of the globe. You are automatically brought to the Paleo Earth page, but there are other pages you can scroll to using the arrows at the top of the page. On the Paleo Earth page, the geological timeline is on the left hand side, with present day at the top, and going down to the beginning of the Cambrian period 541 million years ago. The periods, eras, and eons are included. You can click on each one and it will give a description about the time period, including time spans, major extinction events, and major events in plant and animal life on earth such as the diversification of plant life during the Devonian period. At the top left hand corner, you can click on the down arrow, and the map will begin going back in time from present day to the beginning of the Cambrian, showing an animation of the tectonic plate changes over time. Additionally, on the top right, the global temperature and carbon dioxide levels are displayed, and you can view the changes over time. In addition to the Paleo Earth page, the other pages are Ancient Earth, Ice Age Earth, and Modern Earth. Ancient Earth shows earth’s history from 541 million years ago to 4600 million years ago. Ice Age Earth demonstrates the changes in ice extent and sea level from 19000 BCE to 8000 years into the future. Again, there is an animation to watch the changes, and each period and epoch can be clicked for more

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Laura Kaupas October 15, 2018 information. The Modern Earth page shows global temperature of the planet, with dates from 1910 to 2016. There are some really interesting and fun features to this app. Under the options, you can choose “charts on,” and this will superimpose a graph on the 3D map of the globe. You can chose the variable to observe, including temperature, O2, CO2, day length, luminosity, and biodiversity. The chart will show this variable over the timeline available on that page. This feature may be helpful for some learners that need to see a more graphical representation to understand patterns over time. Another feature is the “view” menu, where you can toggle on and off various other features like “cities,” “fossils,” “extinctions,” and many others. For example, when I turn on the “fossils” option, small shovels appear on the map. Each shovel represents an important fossil or area with significant fossil finds, and can be clicked on for more information. For example, when you click on “Tiktaalik,” you learn the age, the description, and the importance of this fossil, and there is a link to a Howard Hughes Medical Institute video on the origin of tetrapods. You can also turn on borders and/or cities, which is an interesting way to have a reference point when observing the movements of the tectonic plates. The last menu item is the “in depth” menu, which provides written and visual information on related topics, such as the greenhouse effect, oxygen and animal size, evidence of early photosynthesis, and many others. One topic of Science 9 is the sustainability of systems, for example, that carbon is a key factor in climate change and the greenhouse effect. EarthViewer could be used to demonstrate the changes in carbon through time, with an emphasis on the Ice Age Earth, where the relationship between carbon and ice/sea level is very clear, as well as an emphasis on the Modern Earth, where changes in CO2 and temperature over the last 100 years are visualized. The app could be used in similar ways in Environmental Science 11 and 12, where matter cycles and

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Laura Kaupas October 15, 2018 climate change are also important concepts. Of course, EarthViewer could be used in many in Earth Science 11 and Geology 12. Plate tectonic theory is one of the big ideas of both courses, and this app is a great way to visualize changes in plate tectonics. Climate change is also one component of Earth Science 11. Geology 12 also includes content on earth’s geological and biological history and the fossil record. There are many ways that the visualization and information on plate movement, fossils, and extinction and biodiversity in the app can be used to help students understand this information. There are only three reviews of this app on the App Store, but they all gave five stars. There are online reviews by teachers and editors (for example, https://www.educationalappstore. com/app/biointeractive-earthviewer), all of which are positive, and highlight that the app is free, comprehensive, and the information is sourced from academic research. I only have a few suggestions that might improve the app or make the best use of the app in the classroom. I think it would be interesting if the developers added an “ocean current” option, where the ocean currents and changes in these currents over time could be observed. In terms of use in the classroom, the images and links are quite small on the iPhone, so I would recommend using the app on iPads or the online version. Additionally, there are definitely some components that students may need to be guided through to fully understand the information. For example, the temperature profile of the Modern Earth shows the temperature difference between global temperature and the average global temperature from 1951-1980. Temperature changes over time would likely be better understood if this metric was discussed with the students first.

Personally, I feel that there are many advantages to this app, and that there are many ways it could be used in the science curriculum. I enjoy having a visual way to learn, and this

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Laura Kaupas October 15, 2018 app so clearly visualizes so many different aspects to our planet, like plate tectonics, temperature and CO2 change, ice extent and sea level, and many others. The app is very easy to use and understand, and detailed references are provided, broken down by category such as “continental reconstructions,” “carbon dioxide data,” and “mass extinctions.” Because of this transparency, I believe it is fairly reliable. It is worth noting that the Howard Hughes Medical Institute is privately funded rather than publicly funded, although I have not come across any information that appears to be incorrect or misleading. There is also a quick guide for teachers, with information on how this app might be used in the classroom. A worksheet could easily be created to guide the students through the app and to draw their attention to certain features (for example, what areas of the globe have had the most temperature change?). Overall I believe this visual aid of the geological and biological history of earth, with the very clear descriptions of time periods and in depth topics would be a great tool in the classroom.

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