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The increasing integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in visual analytics (VA) tools raises vital questions about the behavior of users, their trust, and the potential of induced biases when provided with guidance during data…
We describe a new inquiry design aimed at teaching advanced high-school to senior college students the basics of stellar populations. The inquiry is designed to have students come up with their own version of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram…
This popular article provides a short summary of the progress and prospects in Weather and Climate Modelling for the benefit of high school and undergraduate college students and early career researchers. Although this is not a…
Mathematics is a mountain, but students need more than descriptions of the view: they need a trail they can actually walk. This paper presents the Math Teaching Atlas, a framework for mathematical exposition built around route units (single…
Like the prehistoric twig and stone, tangible user interfaces (TUIs) are objects manipulated by humans. TUI success will depend on how well they exploit spatiality, the intuitive spatial skills humans have with the objects they use. In this…
Interactive visualization and simulation of astrophysical phenomena help astronomers and enable digital planetariums and television documentaries to take their spectators on a journey into deep space to explore the astronomical wonders of…
How are people able to plan so efficiently despite limited cognitive resources? We aimed to answer this question by extending an existing model of human task decomposition that can explain a wide range of simple planning problems by adding…
Arts are a seamless way to introduce the general public to both basic and more sophisticated astronomical concepts. The visual richness of astronomy makes it attractive and easily incorporated in painting and literature. Astronomy is the…
Recent advances in our understanding of the Universe have revolutionized our view of its structure, composition and evolution. However, these new ideas have not necessarily been used to improve the teaching of introductory astronomy…
Students of visualization come to formal education with an abundance of personal experience. However, one's exposure to graphics through media and education may not be sufficiently diverse to appreciate the nuance and complexity required to…
In this paper, we describe an electronic guidebook prototype and report on a study of its use in a historic house. Supported by mechanisms in the guidebook, visitors constructed experiences that had a high degree of interaction with three…
The POLAR Investigation of the Sun (POLARIS) mission uses a combination of a gravity assist and solar sail propulsion to place a spacecraft in a 0.48 AU circular orbit around the Sun with an inclination of 75 degrees with respect to solar…
To help the blind people walk to the destination efficiently and safely in indoor environment, a novel wearable navigation device is presented in this paper. The locating, way-finding, route following and obstacle avoiding modules are the…
Advanced civilizations capable of interstellar travel, if they exist, are likely to have advanced propulsion methods. Spaceships moving at high speeds would leave a particular signature which could be detected from Earth. We propose a…
We describe our adventures in creating a new first-year course in Experimental Mathematics that uses active learning. We used a state-of-the-art facility, called The Western Active Learning Space, and got the students to "drive the…
We have designed an inquiry-based laboratory activity on transiting extrasolar planets for an introductory college-level astronomy class. The activity was designed with the intent of simultaneously teaching science process skills and…
There is a desire to observe the sun's poles to further deepen our understanding of solar activity. However, because of the large speeds needed to perform out-of-ecliptic plane maneuvers, chemical and electric rocket propulsion mechanisms…
Studying history involves many difficult tasks. Examples include searching for proper data in a large event space, understanding stories of historical events by time and space, and finding relationships among events that may not be…
In the maritime sector, safe vessel navigation is of great importance, particularly in congested harbors and waterways. The focus of this work is to estimate the distance between an object of interest and potential obstacles using a…
We deal with the navigation problem where the agent follows natural language instructions while observing the environment. Focusing on language understanding, we show the importance of spatial semantics in grounding navigation instructions…