Our review of the available GIS and visualization software convinced us that these technologies require more time to learn than the typical classroom teacher is willing to invest. Visual Earth has been designed with a clear interface that simplifies access, analysis, and management of scientific data. Time for curriculum development. As much as teachers might like to develop their own curriculum, most do not have the time or experience to do so. Visual Earth includes focused learning activities that teachers can easily integrate with standard topics in the most popular earth science, biology, and geography textbooks.
Students choose overlays of data.
The upper image displays sea surface remperature and currents. The lower image overlays the track of hurricane Bonnie. The Visual Earth GIS displays an electronic map composed of overlays of data. A sample of the overlays is shown in Figure 1. By selecting different combinations of overlays, students can begin to understand the connections between the distribution of one variable and another.