A VIRTUAL FIELDWORK EXPERIENCE HIGHLIGHTING ACTIVE RESEARCH ON THE CRETACEOUS-PALEOGENE BOUNDARY IN THE GULF COASTAL PLAIN

Virtual fieldwork experiences (VFEs) provide students an opportunity to visit field locations via a rich array of digital imagery, to answer questions about geological phenomena in a manner that partially approximates experiences of doing physical field work. VFEs can also facilitate insights into how field work is used to do scientific research, for example, by providing access to some of the images and data that geoscientists are currently generating from analyses of outcrops and field samples. Toward this end, a multi-dimensional research project on the nature of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction and recovery in marine strata on the Gulf Coastal Plain (GCP) is the basis for a new virtual fieldwork experience that highlights both content and process in the historical geosciences.

The audience for the VFE is high school and introductory college Earth science students, with special focus on those living in the Gulf Coast region; the VFE is also accessible to the general public. The VFE is integrated into a section of the PRI website EarthatHome.org dedicated to creating and using VFEs. The GCP VFE is hosted as an ArcGIS StoryMap, with links to regional geology content on EarthatHome.org. The VFE includes a teacher guide to implementation in classrooms and a student guide to exploration and inquiry.

For imagery, the K-Pg virtual fieldwork experience uses primarily photographs and video from NSF-funded research fieldwork (PIs C. Myers, C. Pietsch, and W. Allmon) in Maastrichtian- and Danian-age field sites in Mississippi and Texas. Data and photographs from laboratory and collections work are also integrated into the VFE. The goal is that highlighting ongoing research within the VFE will encourage students to understand science as a process and to envision what scientists do to study past geologic events. Using photographs of diverse faculty and research students in the field emphasizes the diversity of people contributing to science.