PREPARING UNDERGRADUATES FOR GEOSCIENCE RESEARCH IN THE CLASSROOM: VIRTUAL ACCESS TO DATA, AND TO TOOLS FOR DATA COLLECTION

A crucial step in using undergraduate research as a strategy for geoscience instruction is providing to students access to real research tools that they can learn to use. In the case of much field survey and analytical instrumentation, doing so is challenging for reasons of cost and of use logistics, as these tools are severely limiting in terms of how many students may work with them simultaneously; and as they are often critical to faculty research, down-time for (or due to) student use is problematic. However, advances in digital information systems and related computer technologies now make it possible for students to get "hands-on" experiences with research grade instrumentation in the classroom via remote computer operation protocols. As well, the rapid growth of publicly accessible geoinformatics data portals, and associated visualization and interpretive tools, makes it feasible to have students investigate and interrogate large datasets both as classroom activities and as part of independent, mentored research projects.

In my majors courses, I incorporate into classroom activities an open-ended investigative exercise in which students make use of remotely operable microbeam instruments (SEM and/or electron microprobe, housed at the Florida Center for Analytical Electron Microscopy at FIU). The remote operation capabilities permit students to operate these instruments in the classroom, and allow me to conduct whole-class lab instructional activities that both provide insights into modern research tools, and help allay fears students can have in using complex instrumentation.

In introductory courses I include investigations that involve compiling and interpreting imagery and chemical data hosted in NASA-supported data portals (THEMIS, HiRISE) and/or terrestrial geoinformatics systems (the Integrated Earth Data Applications portal at L-DEO). Data access through these portals is generally via some kind of intuitive geospatial information systems platform (JMARS; GeoMapApp), though several NASA databases can now be directly accessed via Google Earth. Students learn how to create different kinds of data visualizations (geospatial and graphical), how to interpret the data they have compiled, and how to construct scientific arguments based on their interpretations.