NASA Learning Technologies is a development effort to create learning tools that provide access to NASA content and data in an engaging and dynamic manner. The present study is the initiation of the design research for one of those developed tools, which provides access to the satellite imagery and scientific visualizations on a 3D globe. NASA education's challenge is not the incorporation of authentic high-tech resources. Rather, it is the preparation for educational use with well-defined science topics. The results of this study suggest that using this tool within a motivating context and an appropriate learning activity could provide positive impacts on science understanding and learning experiences.