WHO HAD THE HIGH GROUND? ACTIVE LEARNING EXERCISES USING LIDAR-BASED DIGITAL ELEVATION MAPS OF CIVIL WAR BATTLEFIELDS

Geology has strongly influenced human history, providing opportunities to teach Earth science using historical events as a narrative framework. Here, we describe a set of active learning exercises that use historical storytelling to teach geological concepts and their relevance to society.

Since the publication of Andrew Brown’s “Geology and the Gettysburg Campaign” (1962, Pennsylvania Topographic and Geological Survey), numerous geologists have described how geology controls the topography of Civil War battlefields and, thus, influenced the courses of the battles. These efforts were the inspiration for our “Battlefield Geology” exercises used in a freshman honors seminar at the University of Connecticut. Students had no previous geology background, so similar exercises could be used for public outreach, or they could be adapted for upper-level students by emphasizing more advanced geologic topics.

Each week, we examined a Civil War battlefield using digital elevation maps based on high-resolution LiDAR data. After a short introduction to the battle and to a geologic topic illustrated by the battlefield, small groups of students recreated the battle at a series of time slices using printed elevation maps and plastic game pieces representing infantry, artillery, and cavalry. Using the map like a gameboard, they explored how hills, mountains, rivers, and other topographic features influenced the strategies, tactics, and movements of the Union and Confederate armies.

Rocks in the eastern United States are, of course, mostly covered by soil, vegetation, and human structures, but the LiDAR-based maps expose a great deal of geological information, particularly when supplemented with geologic maps and rock hand samples. Battles were presented chronologically, and geologic topics were chosen to build in complexity through the semester. Recurring topics of discussion included (1) the production of topography by differential erosion of rock types, (2) how this reflects subsurface geologic structure, and (3) the morphology and behavior of fluvial systems. We included battles that spanned the major geologic provinces of the southeastern and Mid-Atlantic States. Other historical events could be used to frame similar map-based exercises, particularly for illustrating local geology and history.