ONLINE HIGH-RESOLUTION PANORAMAS AS TEACHING TOOLS FOR INTRODUCTORY GEOSCIENCE COURSES

Geology is essentially a visual science and many concepts are best learned by field study, yet many geoscience educators rely on traditional text-based lectures to convey concepts. Even when photos are integrated in classroom exercises, the view is often limited to a single scale. We provided virtual field experiences for students by developing exercises that focused on observation of outcrops and landscapes at multiple scales to demonstrate key concepts. Very high-resolution (gigapixel) panoramic images are ideal for studying geologic features at multiple scales. These images are created using the Gigapan system (http:// www.gigapan.org) that utilizes a simple robotic camera mount with a standard digital camera to obtain component images of the panorama, and a ‘stitching’ software program to piece the images into a panorama. When uploaded to the Gigapan website, the online viewer allows the user to view the entire panorama and to zoom into any part of the image with excellent detail.

Exercises were developed for various field localities demonstrating concepts critical for introductory level courses (targeted at non-majors, pre-service education majors, and beginning geoscience majors). Exercises enhance observation and exploration skills. A variable-scale approach allows students to explore virtual field sites from the “big picture” down to the hand-sample scale. One significant advantage of high-resolution panoramas over traditional static visualizations is the ability to be actively engaged with the image. Clickable links (snapshots) located at the base of the online Gigapan images guide the user to specific locations within the panorama. In addition, the Gigapans are linked to Google Earth, allowing additional scaling of regional context. Examples of exercise panoramas (CCSU keyword on Gigapan site) include the landscapes of the Grand Canyon and Horseshoe Bend, AZ (river and mass wasting processes, sedimentary strata, and relative time concepts), and outcrops in Utah (faulting and sedimentary structures) and Connecticut (metamorphic and igneous rocks, cross-cutting relationships). Future exercises for upper-level geology students will be developed around Gigapans collected in the field along with related sample and thin section suites.