USING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY TO ENHANCE SCALE MODEL EXPERIMENTS FOR IMPROVED TEACHING AND LEARNING

Scale model experiments provide unique and interesting insights into many geological processes. As valuable as these experiments are, most instructors do not normally include them in class meetings, due to the considerable development and execution times required. Instructors who do use scale model experiments, typically do not capture the event on film, especially for distribution to others.. Although a few model results are included in commercially available films, most exist only as black and white photographs in published articles.

Digital video technology offers the promise that the most informative and useful of these experiments will be readily available to instructors for use in courses. The combination of relatively inexpensive digital video cameras, powerful personal computers with large capacity hard disks, advanced software and/or hardware to edit the digital video file, and the ability to easily produce CDs or DVDs containing the video file, are transforming what can be achieved for reasonable cost and time commitments.

We are creating an array of QuickTime movies that will be placed on CD (or DVD) that should provide a valuable resource for instructors teaching introductory- or intermediate-level geology courses. QuickTime movies currently available or in production include: (1) normal faulting (several sand extension models), (2) thrust faulting (sand compression models), (3) strike-slip faulting (clay cakes subjected to shear), (4) sill and dike intrusion (plaster of Paris injected into gelatin), (5) growth and migration of ripples (flume), (6) erosion and formation of coastal landforms (wave tank), (7) groundwater flow paths (sand model with pumping and injection wells), (8) fold growth (compression box using a variety of materials), and (9) nucleation and growth of kink bands (compression apparatus using computer punch cards).

These QuickTime movies will provide students with a dynamic introduction to modeled geologic processes and should provide greater insight into and deeper understanding of these processes.