INTEGRATING REMOTE DIGITAL TOOLS INTO POST-PANDEMIC GEOLOGIC FIELDWORK TO EFFECTIVELY DISSEMINATE CONTENT DELIVERY AND ASSIST IN OVERALL UNDERSTANDING OF VARIOUS GEOLOGIC PHENOMENA: SUMMER 2022 FIELD MAPPING EXERCISES

In the summer of 2020, a case study titled “Integrating Digital Tools in Remote Learning to Enhance the Delivery Methods of Technical Content in Undergraduate Geosciences” was virtually presented at the GSA annual meeting (initially scheduled in Montreal, Canada). The primary objective concerning the usage of digital tools was to highlight the abrupt COVID-19 induced transition to remote learning, the subsequent impact on geologic fieldwork, and the deployment of new digital tools as an adaptation to the unprecedented change in the learning environment. Here, authors discuss integrating such digital tools and lessons learned from geologic fieldwork conducted during the pandemic into the post-pandemic geologic field investigation. The summer 2022 Geologic Field Mapping Course (capstone course) in Rosendale, Ulster County, NY, involved lower to mid Paleozoic complexly folded siliciclastic and carbonates and was conducted to pre-pandemic standards. Students from both the City University of New York (CUNY) York College and CUNY Queens College had the opportunity to camp in the field using facility provided by North-South Lake for the entire duration of the course. Accommodation near the point of interest was possible largely due to easing of social distancing protocols and being closer to Rosendale, enabled students to inspect outcrops for field data collection. Digital tools carried over from the 2020-2021 pandemic era included the employment of a 5G Internet Hotspot, a miniprojector, and the use of various remote software such as DPlot, Sedlog, ArcPro GIS, and Google Earth. Pertinent lithologic and structural data were plotted to draw cross-sections, correlate mappable units, and decipher depositional environments of the exposed sedimentary rocks. The outcomes of this recently concluded field mapping exercises demonstrate that integrating lessons learned and utilization of digital tools not only optimize geologic fieldwork, rather, it also enhances the efficiency of statistically analyzing data, making real time decisions in the field, and correlating various findings to previously published academic literature. Access to 5G Internet Hotspot in remote setting became very effective in terms allowing students to gather peer-reviewed geologic information and minimize the knowledge gap, if any.