Design 2

Due Date: April 5, 2007

On April 19th, we will be hosting a group of Environmental Science students from Northwood High School in Montgomery County. They've been examining the issue of global warming, discussing whether they believe the evidence they've seen. We'll be setting up a hands-on exercise for them to use visualization to explore data relevant to the issue of global warming. This first phase is to find data sources and propose ways to explore them with visualization. We'll pick one of these data sources (or another suggested by their teacher) to use during the exercise. For this assignment, find a public domain data source that would be useful in examining the question of global warming. Discuss your data source, how it addresses the issue, and potential visualizations of it in a 1-2 page document. Describe your designs for possible visualizations and explain how these visualization would help someone form/justify an opinion about the existence or non-existance of global warming. Discuss how these could be used in a hands-on exercise for high school environmental studies students. Be prepared to present your data source, visualization ideas, and exercise ideas to the class in a 5-10 minute presentation. You may bring visuals to support your presentation, but they are optional. The objectives of this assignment are:

Look for public domain data on a subject of interest
Propose a traditional or novel display for that data which helps explore the subject of interest
Discuss your choices and the expected utility of this data and its visualizations

Grading Standards
Your assigment will be assessed for topicality and richness of data, appropriateness and expected effectiveness of proposed visualizations, and potential as an interesting exercise. You data source must contain a MINIMUM of 1000 pieces of data. If you think something with fewer data items is appropriate, you must get it approved at least 48 hours before the assignment is due.

All text is expected to be in clear and correct English.

What to turn in

Turn in a printed copy of your design document in class on the day due. Be sure to include the URL of the data source. You may optionally bring an image (real or conceptual) of possible visualizations of your data to support your presentation.