BRINGING HANDHELD COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY TO A TOMBSTONE WEATHERING RESEARCH PROJECT FOR PHYSICAL GEOLOGY

Handheld technology such as Palm Pilots can assist in data collection and contain electronic resources for students to utilize during field research experiences. A field exercise for physical geology students, the weathering rates of tombstones, has been modified to take advantage of this emerging technological tool.

The physical geology course at Penn State Delaware County is an introductory-level general-education course for non-science majors. The tombstone weathering project is designed to give students experience with the scientific method, collecting data in the field, then processing and interpreting that data. Prior to fall 2003, the students would visit a cemetery and collect the necessary data on paper in their notebooks, while holding on to a handout to guide their research and their rock identification manual. These materials proved awkward for students to work with. After the data collection process, students would enter the data into a MS Excel worksheet, then all worksheets would be compiled by the instructor. The instructor would spend hours merging all the data and correcting the data entry errors by the students before the data could be sorted and worked with.

The addition of Palm Pilots in 2003 has made the field experience much simpler and efficient. The students only need to hold onto the handheld computer. On the Palm Pilot is a data entry form with radio bullets and pull-down menus to help eliminate possible data entry errors. The Palm has eBooks with all the text and image information needed to complete the project, such as all the text from the handout and a rock identification eBook. The students can easily move between the data collection form and the eBooks during their research. When the fieldwork is completed, all of the Palm Pilots are hotsynched and the data is compiled onto one web page with the contents easily exported into MS Excel. The students can then continue the project with the data analysis and interpretation.

The incorporation of handheld computers in introductory-level geoscience courses can enhance student comfort level with technology and improve the quality of a classroom research field project. Students reported that they enjoyed using the Palm Pilots, appreciated that they did not have to type in the collected data, and requested to use Palm Pilots for future class projects.