Spanish Translation of Windows to the Universe Website

University Corporation For Atmospheric Res, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

Spanish Translation of Windows to the Universe Website This project supports translation of the successful Windows to the Universe website (http://www.windows.ucar.edu) into Spanish. The Windows to the Universe (W2U) project was initiated in 1995, to develop a user-friendly learning system for students and the general public for the Earth and space sciences, linking to interdisciplinary humanities connections. All content on the W2U site is now available only in English. The site serves over 4 million users per year, ~65% of whom are K-12 students who visit the site frequently for classroom research and free-time browsing. The site is composed of thousands of multi-level hybrid cgi-html pages that are dynamically interpreted to serve content back to the user at the upper elementary, middle, or high school level. Each page also includes multiple images, and the main image on each page typically is linked to a larger version of the same image on a separate html page. All pages on the site include image credits, captions, and labeled and unlabeled buttons and navigation tools. Translation of the site into Spanish therefore requires a combination of text translation as well as graphics revision to develop a full second version of the site to serve the Spanish- speaking community. The project team will translate the web site with a multi-step process over a two-year interval, ensuring accuracy of the translation through the use of a full-time professional Spanish translator and Spanish-speaking geoscientists. They will also develop a page translation management interface that will facilitate the interaction of the translators and W2U project staff. Project staff will attend two Hispanic science education meetings in the second year to disseminate information about the availability of the new Spanish-language version of the W2U site.