TOOLS FOR TEACHING GEOPHYSICS REMOTELY

The NAGT working group “Virtual Geophysics Field Experiences” developed activities to support remote learning geophysics that ranged from simple “at home” instruments to analysis of field geophysics data sets. Smartphones provide a remarkable breadth of ways that students can take geophysical measurements. Two activities were developed and submitted to NAGT’s remote field teaching collection that use the magnetometer component of the “Physics Toolbox” app as an introduction to magnetic surveys. The “3C” app was used for an exercise related seismology using the 3-component accelerometers in smartphones, with students comparing their results to Raspberry Shake seismometers . The smartphone GPS function was used to introduce students to accuracy and precision considerations for georeferencing. In another activity students used a fishfinder sonar device to learn acoustic surveying and develop a profile across a small stream or canal in their home area. An “Introduction to Structure from Motion (SfM)” activity also utilized a smartphone for camera, compass, and inclinometer apps. Students learn the basics of making a high resolution 3D model by photographing an object such as a car, sofa, or berm and processing the photos in Agisoft MetaShape. This introduction to SfM serves as a foundation for later exercises using field imagery and terrestrial and airborne lidar datasets, collected by others, to address actual geoscience research questions. Another project through European Plate Observing System (EPOS) gives students access to the data and analysis tools for shallow commercial seismic analyses. Finally, an online game interface simulates the geophysics part of a police search for a buried body as part of a cold case review (based on a real case in North Wales, UK. In total, the working group found that smartphone apps, affordable sensing tools (like a fishfinder), and online data sets were able to serve remarkably well for students’ remote geophysics learning. The contributed activities each address three or more of the nine NAGT community-developed capstone field experience learning outcomes (https://nagt.org/nagt/teaching_resources/field/designing_remote_field_experie.html#outcomes). Goals include topics such as: designing appropriate data collection strategies; analyzing and synthesizing geologic data with other knowledge; developing reasonable interpretations; communicating findings; working collaboratively and independently.