2017 GRC on Visualization in Science & Education

2017 Gordon Research Conference on Visualization in Science and Education

“Scientific Visualization for Decision-ˇMaking” Aug. 6th-Aug. 11th, 2017 Bates College Lewiston, ME USA

The 2017 Gordon Research Conference on Visualization in Science and Education will continue a tradition of bringing together a diverse community of practitioners and researchers engaged in the production, study, and application of visualizations to advance and promote scientific understanding. The theme for the 2017 conference is “Scientific Visualization for Decision-Making.” This interdisciplinary meeting will explore the various ways that data are visualized and leveraged to help diverse stakeholders make informed decisions based on scientific evidence. Speakers will discuss the cognitive underpinnings of human decision-making and how it is affected by the availability of visualizations. Presentations will include cutting-edge research on how visualizations support both the day-to-day decisions made by investigators and case studies of visualizations proven critical for scientific discovery. Novel research will also be presented that demonstrates how the design of a visualization influences decisions made by policymakers and the general public.

As can be seen by the previous agenda over the past 24 years , this meeting brings together a diverse group of scientists, artists and professionals to discuss cutting-edge research. This research describes the development and impact of scientific visualizations on science practice and science learning and communication. Scientist participants include those in the physical, natural, cognitive, learning and computer sciences while artists represent a variety of presentation media. Meeting participants are primarily from research universities, but participants from federal agencies, national museums, and entrepreneurs eager to discuss ways to leverage research on scientific visualizations for the public good are regular attendees. Indeed, participants typically comment on the unique opportunity this meeting provides for cross-disciplinary discussion and collaboration.

As in previous years, there will be a weekend workshop preceding the main conference (Aug 5-6), to allow a small group of conference-goers to work together in a hands-on format. The theme of this year’s workshop is “Educating Skillful Visualizers,” including strands on fostering learners’ visualization competencies and assessing those competencies. A shared focus throughout both strands will be on social and cognitive processes and strategies that underlie learning with visualizations.

The meeting agenda and meeting application are posted on the GRC website .

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Mike Stieff, Ph.D. Associate Professor
Department of Chemistry
Learning Sciences Research Institute
University of Illinois-Chicago
845 W. Taylor Street
Rm 4376
hicago, IL 60607
312.996.4348
mstieff@uic.edu