This page contains a list of suggestions and issues for the SMS
From John 1/12/2015
The Science Literacy Maps are not being hosted by UCAR after the NSDL transition to ISKME. The 'Top Picks' resources tab is no longer being displayed in the maps, since the NSDL search service has reached EOL. However, the alignments to AAAS Benchmarks were carried over to the OER Commons repository and NSDL 'Top Picks' could be re-implemented via the OERC API if/when funds become available.
Email: 2015-01 SLM Top Picks use case and request to implement
Email: 2015-01 SLM Top Picks request to implement
From John 1/28/2012
-Benchmark SMS-BMK-0604 appears in some maps but does not come up when requested via the service APIs. Appears to be missing a relation.
-For example: Empty response: http://strandmaps.nsdl.org/cms1-2/jsapi/json?ObjectID=SMS-BMK-0604&Format=SMS-JSON
From Francis (6/29/2010)
- The Related Resources tab - In Firefox the image is clipped and there is no way to scroll to see the entire image (it IE it provides horizontal scroll)
From Loretta (1/21/2010 Word doc from DLESE Literacy Maps QA)
Issues – Literacy Maps
1). Gravity>grade 3-5>first row>second from left – “changes in speed…”>related benchmarks >Click to open these benchmarks
Result – only displays a blank page – no benchmarks displayed
2). Gravity>grade K -2>first row, last one on the left – “the way to change…”>related benchmarks>Click to open these benchmarks
Result – only displays a blank page – no benchmarks displayed
3). States of Matter>grade 3-5>first row, second from left – “Heating and cooling…”
Result – the resulting image displays the Grade range to be K-2, however the benchmark is located in grade 3-5 level
4). States of Matter>grade 3-5>second row, first benchmark – “things can be done to materials…”
Result - the resulting image displays the Grade range to be K-2, however the benchmark is located in grade 3-5 level
Not sure if you can or want to change these:
1). Typo>Solar system>literacy map>grade 9 -12>row one – “As the earth and other planets…”
First “rediation” not found in dictionary -, could they mean “radiation”
Second “newely” needs to be changed to newly
2). Needs “Period -. “ at end of sentence
Solar system>literacy map>grade 6 -8>first row, second from left – “Many chunks or rock orbit the sun…..illuminated tail “.”
From Sharon (3/3/2008)
Possible errors in SMS' NSES field - these have been checked against the ASN viewer and so assumes that the ASN content is correct. (Note some modifications have been applied to make the format sync with the NCS standards formatting - this reports using the format necessary to conform with NCS not the format that is in the SMS db)
--SMS Standards Text
NSES:K-4:Content Standard F Science in Personal and Social Perspectives Standards:Science and technology in local challenges: Some environmental changes occur slowly, and others occur rapidly. Students should understand the different consequences of changing environments in small increments over long periods as compared with changing environments in large increments over short periods.
--NCS Standards Text
NSES:K-4:Content Standard F Science in Personal and Social Perspectives Standards:Changes in environments: Some environmental changes occur slowly, and others occur rapidly. Students should understand the different consequences of changing environments in small increments over long periods as compared with changing environments in large increments over short periods.
--ASN Standards Text
NSES:K-4:Content Standard F Science in Personal and Social Perspectives Standards:Changes in environments: Some environmental changes occur slowly, and others occur rapidly. Students should understand the different consequences of changing environments in small increments over long periods as compared with changing environments in large increments over short periods.
--NOTE: SMS is incorrect - 'Science and technology in local challenges' should be 'Changes in environments'
--SMS Standards Text
NSES:9-12:Content Standard A Science as Inquiry Standards:Understandings about scientific inquiry:Mathematics is essential in scientific inquiry. Mathematical tools and models guide and improve the posing of questions, gathering data, constructiong explanations and communicating results.
--NCS Standards Text
NSES:9-12:Content Standard A Science as Inquiry Standards:Understandings about scientific inquiry:Mathematics is essential in scientific inquiry. Mathematical tools and models guide and improve the posing of questions, gathering data, constructing explanations and communicating results.
--ASN Standards Text
NSES:9-12:Content Standard A Science as Inquiry Standards:Understandings about scientific inquiry:Mathematics is essential in scientific inquiry. Mathematical tools and models guide and improve the posing of questions, gathering data, constructing explanations and communicating results.
--NOTE: SMS has a typo at 'constructiong'
From Sharon (4/13/2007) - (Note: Database-related issues for these were fixed/committed on 4/19)
Errors within SMS---------
Map: mathematical processes
BM: Some work in mathematics (in 9-12)
Issue: A series of '?????' are in the first sentence
Map: Solar system
issue: the last strand 'telescopes' is truncated after 'telesco'
Map: Health technology
BM: there are normal ranges for body measurments (in 3-5)
issue: the next word 'including' is entirely out of the box
MAP: disease
BM: Pasteur found that infection (in 6-8)
issue: the words 'germs--caused' are outside the box
MAP: disease
BM: Some diseases are caused by germs (in K-2)
issue: this benchmark doesn't have any associated arrows
MAP: computers
Issue: strands 'storing and processing information' and 'digital coding' are
overlapping each other
MAP: computers:
BM: miniaturization of information (in 9-12)
Issue: 'processing' is outside of the box
MAP: natural selection
BM: in all environments (in 6-8)
Issue: 'freshwater' is outside of the box
MAP: variation in inherited characteristics
issue: the first strand 'variation' is cut off before 'riation'
MAP: mathematical models
issue: last two strands are overlapping 'choices in mathematics' and 'interpreting results'
Map: scientific theories
BM: Some scientific knowledge (in 6-8)
issue: no arrows associated
MAP: chemical reactions
BM: an enormous variety of biological (in 9-12)
issue: 'be' is outside the map
MAP: chemical reactions
BM: energy appears in different forms (in 6-8)
issue: 'ments' from arrangements is outside the box
MAP: cell functions
BMS: 'People need water' AND 'most living things' (in K-2)
issue: These benchmarks should have arrows going to 'Some living things' but do not
Nitpick question: What are the rules for capitalization in strands? Most strands are entirely lower case but
some have capital first letters. View all maps to get an overview.
From Sebastian on 4/18/07 - (Note: Database-related issues for these were fixed/committed on 4/19)
I have been going through the strand maps used for CLICK with a fine-toothed comb to prepare for the next stage of
concept map generation algorithms for CLICK.
The two maps in question are:
- Changes in the Earth's Surface
- Plate Tectonics
During this process, I have learned a lot about the SMS and the available "official" UIs: the NSDL Benchmarks
Collection and the new NSDL Concept Map Browser. I have also run into a number of issues I think should be addressed at
some point or at least documented. Apologies in advance for the excruciating level of detail that follows, but since I
had to track down all these issues by consulting the maps, the benchmarks and the service responses, I thought I'd give
you as complete a description as I could. Also note that the nature of my "task" required this level of thoroughness
GENERAL ISSUES
- None of our visualizations allow the user to see the complete "benchmark description", the blurb of text shown inside
the blue nodes in the print version of the Atlas. Note that this is in some cases different from the "benchmark full
text" as several nodes in the map (hence different descriptions) may come from the same benchmark full text. This is
specially painful because of the "..." in the visualizations: there is no way to actually see what was depicted inside
the node in the original Atlas after clicking on a node: you always see the full text. I think this is an issue with
how we make all nodes in our visualizations the same size. This approach deviates from the Atlas representation and
leads to information loss. For a specially painful case, see SMS-BMK-033, SMS-BMK-032, and SMS-BMK-031 in the Plate
Tectonics map (Grades 9-12) where three benchmarks come from the same benchmark full text, but the visualization does
not allow me to see the differences in their "descriptions".
[Clarification from Seb] Upon further review of the XML responses from SMS, it seems that the "benchmark description" is not stored in the database as of v 1.2 or at least not returned. In other words, the issue above may be a cataloging issue as well as a visualization issue. Note that there appear to be significant differences between version 1.1 of the service running at dlese.org and version 1.2 running at nsdl.org. The key difference being that v 1.1 returns the correct value for the "description" while v 1.2 does not return any "description" at all. Since I am somewhat out of the loop on schema updates, this may be a non-issue, but wanted to record it anyway.
- None of our UIs display more than one NSES alignment. A number of benchmarks align to multiple NSES entries and yet
we only seem to show the first one. For a specially funky entry see SMS-BMK-018 in the Changes in the Earth's Surface
map (grades 6-8) where there are 4 NSES entries associated with the entry but we only show one.
- In the XML response from SMS to a query for a detailed record on a benchmark, the field containing the NSES standards
appears to be misspelled. It says "Strandards", should it say "Standards"? or is it a clever play on words?
- Known issue, but worth noting: the visualization draws text outside the nodes fairly often.
CATALOGING/DATABASE ISSUES
- SMS-BMK-0013 is missing from the Changes in the Earth's surface visualization. The Atlas contains this node ("Things
on or near the earth are pulled toward it by the earth's gravity") but the visualization does not show it. The
benchmark is in the database but it does not have a strand associated with it, perhaps this causes problems for the
visualization?
- SMS-BMK-0011 has a typo in the benchmark description and benchmark text: "measurments" is misspelled
- SMS-BMK-0019 is missing some of the text shown inside the node in the Atlas in the "benchmark description". The
missing text appears to come from Science for All Americans so perhaps this is a known issue and AAAS just told us to
omit the text, but I thought I'd note it anyway. Missing text: "Rivers and glacial ice carry off soil and break down
rock, eventually depositing the material in sediments or carrying it in solution to the sea."
- SMS-BMK-0017 is missing a significant portion of the text of the NSES entry aligned to it. It appears the database
only has the first few words of the NSES entry. It should read: "Waves, including sound and seismic waves, waves on
water, and light waves, have energy and can transfer energy when they interact with matter."
From Sharon (8/7/2007)
-Possible issues with subject assignment
-- many of the maps and benchmarks contained in the Human Society chapter have the subject assignments of DLESE:biology,GEM:biology. I cannot say whether or not this is right or wrong but a subject involving 'social studies' tend to pull out more topically relevant search results for some benchmarks (such as SMS-BMK-0424).
-- suggest a general evaluation of subject assignments. In addition to the situation noted above, some subjects appear 'clipped' ie: SMS-BMK-0593 has the subjects, 'DLESE:technology,GEM:technology,McREL:science, technology, and society'. The last subject might have been intended as 'technology and society'
- general field cleanup
-- have seen some inconsistency with field data such as the name of the map being include in the grade level name. For example, the grade level associations for the plate tectonics maps just names the grade level ('6-8') SMS-MAP-0049, but the grade level associations for the Solar System map include the phrase 'solar system' with the grade names ('Solar System, grades 6-8'), SMS-MAP-1282.
From Francis on 4/11/2008 - Suggestion: Display the AAAS code in the bubble. From e-mail: Would it be very difficult to return the AAAS code after the benchmark text? I think it would be very helpful both to us and to SMS users when they're discussing the connections between benchmarks. As you'll note in my point about Bullet #8 above, I could have used a "shorthand" for referring to the benchmarks.