Teaching and Learning Issues
Sudden Oak Death: Hypothesis formulation about the spread of plant disease
Sudden Oak Death Syndrome (SODS) is used as a prevalent and topical case within the second year undergraduate Plant Sciences course at Cambridge to illustrate concepts in plant disease epidemiology. This disease has only appeared in recent years, and research is ongoing to gain a better understanding of its biology and epidemiology. Our project focused on applying the SIMILE toolkit (specifically the ‘Exhibit’ web application framework) to the spatial representation of data associated with SODS.
The Development Process
The technical aim was to integrate data from several sources and visualise multiple sources on a Google Map. The data included epidemiological data, plant distribution data and climatic information. Our semantic tool was designed to allow learners to explore existing data related to the disease. The semantic elements of the tool allow the incorporation of new datasets into the map visualisation tool as they become available, which is particularly important given the contemporary nature of the case in question.
