A SUITE OF INTERACTIVE, WEB-BASED RESOURCES FOR GEOSCIENCE EDUCATION

The geosciences are highly visual, and benefit greatly from computer visualizations, but also stress hands-on and tactile student experiences. Digital methodologies are recent additions to a toolkit of skills built upon analogue field and laboratory methods. Some geoscientists face challenges with making the transition to technology-based teaching, while many of today's students are digital natives. The next generation of geoscientists tend to approach learning differently because their lifelong use of digital devices has imprinted different ways of thinking and learning. How can we utilize advances in technology as new tools to deploy in the effort to communicate geoscience understanding and strengthen student skillsets?

The GEODE (.net) project is developing digital geology resources to enhance geoscience education. These include virtual field experiences (VFEs), such as an interactive visualization of the breakup of the Pangaea supercontinent (geode.net/pangaea/) and GigaPan-based VFEs (geode.net/resources/gigapan/). We offer web-based challenges, such as EarthQuiz (.net) and the Fold Analysis Challenge (geode.net/fac/). EarthQuiz features web-hosted imagery, such as Street View, Photo Spheres, GigaPans, and Satellite View, as the basis for multiple-choice and geo-location questions. These questions can be grouped in themes relevant to geoscience courses. In the Fold Analysis Challenge, upper-level geology students fit planes to flatirons from Sheep Mountain, WY. After several are measured, students fit a fold axis and axial plane to the structure. Then they use Bézier curves to fit a doubly-plunging fold structure to the virtual outcrop.

We will demonstrate our web-based educational resources and hopefully encourage audience members to experiment and provide feedback.

We are supported by NSF DUE 1323468 and Google Geo Curriculum Awards.