USING CUSTOMIZED AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS TO ENHANCE AND PERSONALIZE CLASSROOM PRESENTATIONS IN GEOLOGY

Aerial photography provides a unique perspective to the study of landforms and landscapes, enabling students to broaden their horizons to include not only individual geologic features, but also boundaries and transition zones between regions dominated by different geologic processes. Subtle changes in structural trends and patterns are much more evident than with land-based imagery, and lend themselves to speculation and debate over the development of such landscapes over time. Inclusion of aerial images in classroom presentations improves levels of student interest and makes it easier for students to visualize the work of geologic processes on a regional scale. The increasing emphasis on personalizing geology instruction by focusing on local geology and regional case studies means that commercially available photographs and stock textbook images may no longer be relevant to the classroom discussion.

Taking aerial photographs from commercial aircraft with ordinary photographic equipment is one way to generate customized data sets of images to incorporate into classroom discussions related to local geology. The quality of these photographs can be surprisingly good. Cockpit crews on commercial airliners may provide printouts of their flight plan upon request. Planning is important to obtain an optimal seat assignment for unobstructed views of specific landforms, but weather conditions represent an uncontrollable variable. Nevertheless, on most commercial flights, several opportunities for excellent picture taking will occur. Examples of customized photo sets are available at http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumList?u=4057765 [(albums 12 & 7, et al)]

An extension of this concept to upper level or graduate courses in geomorphology is possible in certain college or university settings where either the school owns their own airplane or there is foundation or grant support available to rent a small commercial plane. The geomorphology class at Clemson University in South Carolina flies a 90 minute transect of the Appalachian Mountains as their major field trip, using the University airplane, a seven-seat, twin-engine Rockwell Turbo Commander. Students generally pay $40 each as their portion of the total cost. Students are encouraged to bring cameras and take their own aerial photographs of landscape.