QUEST--Query Environment for Science Teaching

Ben Shneiderman[1], Azriel Rosenfeld[2], Gary Marchionini[3], William G. Holliday[4], Glenn Ricart[5], Christos Faloutsos[6], and Judith P. Dick[7] University of Maryland, College Park [1] Professor of Computer Science [2] Research Professor and Director, Center for Automation Research [3] Associate Professor of Library and Information Services [4] Professor of Curriculum and Instruction [5] Director, Computer Science Center [6] Associate Professor of Computer Science [7] Assistant Professor of Library and Information Services, [email protected], FAX: 301-314-9145, telephone: 301-405-2048 Abstract QUery Environment for Science Teaching (QUEST) is a proposed digital library implementation consisting of a set of research projects dealing with data capture and organization, content analysis, information seeking and visual interfaces.The QUEST team includes a large number of renown technical collaborators and prominent source collaborators, as well as a significant number of contributors in the University of Maryland, the central, co-ordinating agency. A large collection of multidisciplinary materials in visual and textual formats, made accessible to us by our source collaborators, will be organized to allow integrated access by users from the science education community, that is elementary school through college level teachers. QUEST will be structured so as to provide seamless access to widespread resources on disparate subjects. We intend to provide first-rate subject analysis and representation in order to provide ready access. QUEST will be accessible nationally by means of Mosaic. We propose to provide highly sophisticated querying, browsing and information investigation facilities which will handle integrated textual and visual materials without difficulty. They will be augmented by online reference and referral services, immediately accessible by the user. QUEST will provide a comprehensive information resource for science education accessible through a dynamic, visual user interface.