INTEGRATING FIELD SCALES IN GIGAPAN VIRTUAL LANDSCAPES: TOOLS FOR DESIGNING, HYPOTHESIS-DRIVEN, DATA-BASED, INTRODUCTORY-LEVEL GEOLOGY LABORATORY EXERCISES

A fundamental deficiency in our nation’s present undergraduate STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) and geoscience population is the fear and/lack of robust quantitative skills which are a part of the bigger issue of how to cultivate critical-thinking. While several emerging instructional technologies (Virtual and Augmented Reality, Stereo-imaging, 3-D modeling) have been used qualitatively in the classroom, few have incorporated a clear quantitative, data-collection and hypothesis-testing component within them.

In this paper we present our research in taking a predominantly qualitative, imaging technology – the GigaPan and creating quantitative lab exercises for enabling 100-level geology students to boost their quantitative skills. Specifically students using such labs are able to: (i) explore a virtual geologic landscape via a high-resolution GigaPan image (giga-pixels in size), as if they were physically in the field, (ii) zoom-in to predetermined ‘hot-spots’ – locations in the GigaPan containing meter-sticks for scale, (iii) use the scales for taking measurements of size, shape, angles, thickness etc. of rocks, fossils and structures much alike a geologist in the field, (iv) process the data statistically using standard tools for graphical representation, and (v) determine if their hypothesis is supported by their data.

Specifically, we have developed such Quantitative GigaPans (QGGPs) from the Death Valley, Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks. Creating each such QGGP involved the following steps: (i) surveying a terrain in a 150-180 degree swath (ii) identifying geological features for placing meter-stick scales, (iii) photographing the GigaPan typically involving taking a robot-controlled series of 200-800 high-resolution images, (iv) using software to stitch the individual images into one very large QGGP, (v) uploading the QGGP on the GigaPan server and (vi) creating a lab exercise with quantitative learning objectives and steps for a student to follow for completing such an exercise.

Presently we are seeking national-level publishers for nation-wide dissemination of such QGGPs for the introductory geology, historical geology and environmental geology classes.