GIGAMACRO ANNOTATED GIGAPANS FOR USE IN GEOSCIENCE EDUCATION: AN EXAMPLE FROM PINNACLE PEAK PARK, SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA

Annotated GigaPans created with the GIGAmacro viewer greatly enhance the effectiveness of GigaPans as geological learning tools. With traditional GigaPans, although up to several billion pixels are available for exploration, narration is limited to a caption box below the panorama. With GIGAmacro, narration becomes interactive, and can be placed directly within the panorama, using points, lines, and polygons to highlight geologic or other important features. These may be clicked to pull up a text box about the specific feature, which describes the feature and/or poses a question for viewers. The ability to place the associated text directly with the feature it is referring to minimizes confusion for viewers, and increases the amount of geological content that can be communicated in a single GigaPan. GIGAmacro is both free and easy to use, and has applications in the classroom, as assigned homework, and as an optional learning tool in informal settings, such as for volunteers of a city nature preserve. A GIGAmacro collection was developed for Pinnacle Peak Park in Scottsdale, Arizona. It consists of three GigaPans, each with up to a dozen annotations describing visible geologic features, and will provide a valuable additional learning resource for park volunteers. These images were created with several hours of planning, preparation, and execution, but open the opportunity for countless hours of exploration by viewers. The future of GigaPans in geoscience education will be greatly aided by the interactive annotations created in GIGAmacro.