Educational Use and Effectiveness of an Auditory Display of Mars GRS Data

Introduction: A central issue in science education involves engaging students in the process of scientific discovery. Too often, science is presented as a factual inventory to be memorized rather than an active process of questioning, investigation, and discovery. In addition, scientific data and ideas are most often presented either as text, in tables, graphs, or other visual representations. These modalities are effective and engaging to many, but by no means all, students. In 1983, Howard Gardner [1] proposed a Theory of Multiple Intelligences and argued the need to expand our concept of human intelligence to include logical-mathematical, spatial, linguistic, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, and personal intelligences along with educational materials designed to maximize these intelli-gences. The scientific community has historically relied more heavily on the first two of these intelligen-ces. Very little work has been done in integrating " musical intelligence " into science and science education materials. Background information on this recent field of research can be found at the website for the International Community for Auditory Displays (ICAD) at http://www.icad.org. Description of EPO Project: A unique and alternative Education and Public Outreach (EPO) product has been created by members of the Mars Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS) team to investigate the use and effectiveness of auditory displays in science education. The product, which allows students to both " see " and " hear " seasonal variations in the hydrogen signal detected by the GRS instrument, consists of a traditional animation of false-color maps of hydrogen concentrations on Mars along with an engaging musical presentation , or sonification, of the same data. The hydrogen signal, which is believed to result from the presence of frozen water ice buried in the first meter of the surface of Mars, varies with season because of changes in the polar carbon dioxide ice caps which mask hydrogen gamma rays. By applying logical algorithms to quantitative data, various instruments have been digitally orchestrated to musically represent the following data elements: average daily solar insolation, planetary latitude , predicted and measured hydrogen gamma ray intensities, and calculated hydrogen concentrations. As will be presented, one can access this data using the visual false-color animation, the aural false-pitched sonification, or both.