A PROJECT-ORIENTED UPPER DIVISION GEOSCIENCE CLASS TEACHING HOW TO MAKE GEOSCIENCE ANIMATIONS AND VIDEOS

Explaining fundamental Earth processes using hybrid video/animations made by geoscientists should be a priority of our profession. Making these is a challenge for most geoscientists, but cheaper, more powerful computers, cameras, drones, and software are making it easier. Attractive, scientifically accurate video/animations require research, planning, and skills that are readily attained by upper division Geoscience majors supervised by a professor. As an example of how to do this, we teach an elective (3 credit) upper division course called "Geoscience Animations and Videos". This project-oriented course requires that students sequentially complete 5 smaller projects designed to build the skills needed to make a ~3 minute long hybrid video/animation that visually explains some geologic process. Students choose their topics in consultation with the professor. The 1st project is a short (1-2 page) research paper on the topic, with references. The 2nd project is a storyboard, which is a series of sketches laying out the sequence of videos and animations needed to tell the story. The 3rd project is a short video, where students use a digital camera and microphone to film; this helps them learn about framing scenes, the advantages of indoor vs. outdoor light, and the challenges of recording good sound quality. The 4th project is the narration that will be spoken for the hybrid video/animation. For a 3 minute video, this is about 400 words. The 5th project is a brief animation about the chosen topic. Making an animation is challenging because it requires learning a new software – we mainly used Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro – to make sketches of the chosen Earth process come to life. This is the most challenging part of the class so we leave plenty of time for students to figure out what they need to animate and how to do it. The final project puts all of these pieces together to generate ~3 minute long hybrid video/animation that explains some geologic process. The hybrid video/animation must include scientific references and other credits and acknowledgements. The class pushes the students who generate these to think through the geological processes that they visualize and encourages virtues of research, teamwork and constructive criticism. Student video/animations are posted on YouTube and also on the UTD Geoscience Studios website.