Software application to help make discoveries based on air temperature data

摘要

The purposes of this research are to develop a software application which helps people experience making discoveries by observing and/or analyzing data, and to foster people's intellectual inquiring mind using the application. The word "discovery" in this context means finding, through observation and/or analysis, a remarkable phenomenon or rule which one has not recognized before. The developed application runs on Windows PCs, and it consists of three elements; the Data Visualization Sub-system, the Information Integration Sub-system, and the Stored Data. As the data for analysis for discoveries, the application contains and uses air temperature data, which are familiar to many people and have an abundance of physical characteristics. And those characteristics can be observed and/or analyzed using simple graphs. The Data Visualization Sub-system allows its user to make graphs of air temperature data without any troublesome procedures. The Information Integration Subsystem helps its user integrate information derived from graphs which are generated through the Data Visualization Sub-system. After the development, the application was applied to a seminar class at a university. A questionnaire survey was conducted on the students who used the application in the class. The result of the survey shows comparatively good operability of the application. The result also implies the effectiveness of holding a presentation meeting about their discoveries after the class. However, the result indicates that the instructions to the students should be examined.