ED12A-01 10:20h
Using Digital Time-Lapse Videos to Teach Geomorphic Processes to Undergraduates
We demonstrate the use of relatively low-cost, computer-based digital imagery to create time-lapse videos of two distinct geomorphic processes in order to help students grasp the significance of the rates, styles, and temporal dependence of geologic phenomena. Student interviews indicate that such videos help them to understand the relationship between processes and landform development. Time-lapse videos have been used extensively in some sciences (e.g., biology - http://sbcf.iu.edu/goodpract/hangarter.html, meteorology - http://www.apple.com/education/hed/aua0101s/meteor/, chemistry - http://www.chem.yorku.ca/profs/hempsted/chemed/home.html) to demonstrate gradual processes that are difficult for many students to visualize. Most geologic processes are slower still, and are consequently even more difficult for students to grasp, yet time-lapse videos are rarely used in earth science classrooms. The advent of inexpensive web-cams and computers provides a new means to explore the temporal dimension of earth surface processes. To test the use of time-lapse videos in geoscience education, we are developing time-lapse movies that record the evolution of two landforms: a stream-table delta and a large, natural, active landslide. The former involves well-known processes in a controlled, repeatable laboratory experiment, whereas the latter tracks the developing dynamics of an otherwise poorly understood slope failure. The stream-table delta is small and grows in ca. 2 days; we capture a frame on an overhead web-cam every 3 minutes. Before seeing the video, students are asked to hypothesize how the delta will grow through time. The final time-lapse video, ca. 20-80 MB, elegantly shows channel migration, progradation rates, and formation of major geomorphic elements (topset, foreset, bottomset beds). The web-cam can also be "zoomed-in" to show smaller-scale processes, such as bedload transfer, and foreset slumping. Post-lab tests and interviews with students indicate that these time-lapse videos significantly improve student interest in the material, and comprehension of the processes. In contrast, the natural landslide is relatively unconstrained, and its processes of movement, both gradual and catastrophic, are essentially impossible to observe directly without the aid of time-lapse imagery. We are constructing a remote digital camera, mounted in a tree, which will capture 1-2 photos/day of the toe. The toe is extremely active geomorphically, and the time-lapse movie should help us (and the students) to constrain the style, frequency, and rates of movement, surface slumping, and debris-flow generation. Because we have also installed a remote weather station on the landslide, we will be able to test the links between these processes and local climate conditions.
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~dhclark/webcam.htm
ED12A-02 10:35h
Movies of Finite Deformation within Western North American Plate Boundary Zone
Animations of finite strain within deforming continental zones can be an important tool for both education and research. We present finite strain models for western North America. We have found that these moving images, which portray plate motions, landform uplift, and subsidence, are highly useful for enabling students to conceptualize the dramatic changes that can occur within plate boundary zones over geologic time. These models use instantaneous rates of strain inferred from both space geodetic observations and Quaternary fault slip rates. Geodetic velocities and Quaternary strain rates are interpolated to define a continuous, instantaneous velocity field for western North America. This velocity field is then used to track topography points and fault locations through time (both backward and forward in time), using small time steps, to produce a 6 million year image. The strain rate solution is updated at each time step, accounting for changes in boundary conditions of plate motion, and changes in fault orientation. Assuming zero volume change, Airy isostasy, and a ratio of erosion rate to tectonic uplift rate, the topography is also calculated as a function of time. The animations provide interesting moving images of the transform boundary, highlighting ongoing extension and subsidence, convergence and uplift, and large translations taking place within the strike-slip regime. Moving images of the strain components, uplift volume through time, and inferred erosion volume through time, have also been produced. These animations are an excellent demonstration for education purposes and also hold potential as an important tool for research enabling the quantification of finite rotations of fault blocks, potential erosion volume, uplift volume, and the influence of climate on these parameters. The models, however, point to numerous shortcomings of taking constraints from instantaneous calculations to provide insight into time evolution and reconstruction models. More rigorous calculations are needed to account for changes in dynamics (body forces) through time and resultant changes in fault behavior and crustal rheology.
ED12A-03 10:50h
Activites to Support and Assess Student Understanding of Earth Data
In order to use data effectively, learners must construct a mental model that allows them to understand and express spatial relationships in data, relationships between different data types, and relationships between the data and a theoretical model. Another important skill is the ability to identify gross patterns and distinguish them from details that may require increasingly sophisticated models. Students must also be able to express their understanding, both to help them frame their understanding for themselves, and for assessment purposes. Research in learning unequivocally shows that writing about a subject increases understanding of that subject. In UCSB's general education oceanography class, a series of increasingly demanding activities culminates in two science papers that use earth data. These activities are: 1) homework problems, 2) in-class short writing activities, 3) lab section exploration activities and presentations, and 4) the science paper. The subjects of the two papers are: Plate Tectonics and Ocean and Climate. Each student is a member of a group that adopts a country and must relate their paper to the environment of their country. Data are accessed using the "Our Dynamic Planet" and "Global Ocean Data Viewer" (GLODV) CD's. These are integrated into EarthEd Online, a software package which supports online writing, review, commenting, and return to the student. It also supports auto-graded homework assignments, grade calculation, and other class management functions. The writing assignments emphasize the construction of a scientific argument. This process is explained explicitly, requiring statements that: 1) include an observation or description of an observation (e.g. elevation profiles, quakes), 2) name features based on the observation (e.g. trench, ridge), 3) describe of features (e.g. trends NW, xxxkm long), 4) describe relationships between features (e.g. quakes are parallel to trench), 5) describe a model or theory (e.g. cartoon type representation of a subduction zone), and 6) describe the relationship between the model/theory and the data. Students generate and select data representations with the appropriate data display software, which seamlessly uploads each generated image to the student's personal storage area (on the class server). There they are available to be linked to the writing text. The assignment is "handed in" online, where it is commented, graded according to a rubric, and returned. Students rate the writing assignment as one of the most effective activities that contributes to their learning in the course.
http://oceanography.geol.ucsb.edu/~gs4/Index.html
ED12A-04 11:05h
Instant Gratification: Striking a Balance Between Rich Interactive Visualization and Ease of Use for Casual Web Surfers
Interactive visualizations can be powerful tools for helping students, teachers, and the general public comprehend significant features in rich datasets and complex systems. Successful use of such visualizations requires viewers to have, or to acquire, adequate expertise in use of the relevant visualization tools. In many cases, the learning curve associated with competent use of such tools is too steep for casual users, such as members of the lay public browsing science outreach web sites or K-12 students and teachers trying to integrate such tools into their learning about geosciences. "Windows to the Universe" (http://www.windows.ucar.edu) is a large (roughly 6,000 web pages), well-established (first posted online in 1995), and popular (over 5 million visitor sessions and 40 million pages viewed per year) science education web site that covers a very broad range of Earth science and space science topics. The primary audience of the site consists of K-12 students and teachers and the general public. We have developed several interactive visualizations for use on the site in conjunction with text and still image reference materials. One major emphasis in the design of these interactives has been to ensure that casual users can quickly learn how to use the interactive features without becoming frustrated and departing before they were able to appreciate the visualizations displayed. We will demonstrate several of these "user-friendly" interactive visualizations and comment on the design philosophy we have employed in developing them.
ED12A-05 11:20h
Geospatial Data Presentation and GIS in the GLOBE Program
The GLOBE Program is a worldwide science and education endeavor designed to increase scientific understanding of the Earth as a system, support improved student achievement in science and math, and enhance environmental awareness through inquiry-based learning activities. Since its inception in 1995, over 15,000 schools around the world have taken part in the GLOBE Program. GLOBE students make local environmental measurements and enter them into a publicly available distributed relational database. As of September 2004, this database contains over 11 million measurements and associated metadata records, collected and submitted by students in 86 countries around the world. GLOBE provides tools that help teachers and students use inquiry-based strategies to better understand the Earth as a system. Using these tools and GLOBE data, teachers can provide rich, technology-based learning activities for students that align with national education standards. The GLOBE Program Web site (http://www.globe.gov/) provides a browser-based system for visualizing geo-referenced student-collected data, as well as satellite and sensor data from a variety of other sources. The visualization tool overlays student data on top of base layers that include coastlines, national boundaries, state/province boundaries, cities, rivers, and transportation networks. The interface supports many standard GIS functions, including zooming, panning, scrolling, selectable layer visibility, and geospatial querying. Students can also visualize data from Earth observing satellites, ground stations, and weather models and compare these to their local measurements. All geospatial products are also available through an Open Geospatial Consortium Web Map Service interface. Data can also be downloaded as delimited ASCII text files or as .shape files that users can import into client-side GIS or other visualization or analysis software. This presentation will provide an overview and demonstration of some of the key features of the GLOBE visualization system, and will discuss how it can be used in conjunction with GLOBE's hands-on measurements and classroom learning activities to help students better understand Earth system science concepts. We will also discuss how GLOBE data can be exported into other Web-based and stand-alone GIS applications.
ED12A-06 11:35h
Using 3D Interactive Visualizations In Teacher Workshops
Extending Earth Science learning activities from 2D to 3D was central to this year's second annual Teacher Education Workshop, which was held at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography's Visualization Center (SIO VizCenter; http://siovizcenter.ucsd.edu/). Educational specialists and researchers from several institutions led this collaborative workshop , which was supported by the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC; http://www.scec.org/education), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the SIO VizCenter, San Diego State University (SDSU) and the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS). The workshop was the latest in a series of teacher workshops run by SCEC and the USGS with a focus on earthquakes and seismic hazard. A particular emphasis of the 2004 workshop was the use of sophisticated computer visualizations that easily illustrated geospatial relationships. These visualizations were displayed on a large wall-sized curved screen, which allowed the workshop participants to be literally immersed in the images being discussed. In this way, the teachers explored current geoscience datasets in a novel and interactive fashion, which increased their understanding of basic concepts relevant to the national science education standards and alleviated some of their misconceptions. For example, earthquake hypocenter data were viewed in interactive 3D and the teachers immediately understood that: (1) The faults outlined by the earthquake locations are 3D planes, not 2D lines; (2) The earthquakes map out plate tectonic boundaries, where the 3D structure of some boundaries are more complex than others; (3) The deepest earthquakes occur in subduction zones, whereas transform and divergent plate boundaries tend to have shallower quakes. A major advantage is that these concepts are immediately visible in 3D and do not require elaborate explanations, as is often necessary with traditional 2D maps. This enhances the teachers' understanding in an efficient and painless way. Undoubtedly, the better teachers understand multi-dimensional data, and the easier it is to explore these data in 3D, the more effectively they can convey this information to their students. To make these teaching tools available to a larger audience, we distribute these tools on line (http://www.siovizcenter.ucsd.edu/library/objects/index.php). Many tools are downloadable to a base computer (not requiring uninterrupted web conductivity during class time), and the required freeware is platform independent (Windows Xp/2000/Nt/98, Linux, SGI, Sun, Mac OSX). One participant summed up the workshop as THIS ROCKS!
http://www.siovizcenter.ucsd.edu/workshop/index.html
ED12A-07 11:50h
Basic GAPS: A Dynamic Earth System Model For Students
Basic GAPS is a computer model for students that can simulate the cycles of water and energy between the atmosphere, soil, and vegetation. Students can easily obtain the required soil, vegetation, phenology, and climate data from sources such as the GLOBE program data archive and input the information through guided menus. As the model simulation runs, the flow of water and other environmental processes are displayed so students can observe how different parts of the system change and are affected by each other. A major goal of the Basic GAPS model is to teach students that the Earth's ecosystems are the result of closely linked, dynamic interactions among many processes and many components. Basic GAPS enables students to study the interplay among these processes in a quantitative way with dynamic visualizations. They can examine linkages within a particular biome, such as the sensitivity of soil moisture to seasonal changes in the overlying vegetation or the amount of evaporation and transpiration under certain types of soil or land use. Using Basic GAPS, students can also make up different scenarios (such as increasing the temperature, changing the pattern of precipitation, or modifying the soil properties or vegetation type) to make predictions about how the ecosystem may respond. In this way, students, just like scientists, can pose and address questions regarding the impact of climate, including global climate change, on the environment.