Multi-Modal GPS Technology in a Field-Based Geology Curriculum, Central Washington University and Heritage College

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A collaborative curriculum teams undergraduates at Central Washington University and Heritage College for training in a variety of Global Positioning System techniques as applied to critical regional problems in active tectonics. The centerpiece technology has broader applications, providing students with skills for research and the workplace. Field teams conduct air photo reconnaissance of the Toppenish Ridge anticline and its frontal fault, one of the most active structures in the Yakima fold belt with excellent geomorphic exposure. Teams select areas for detailed geomorphic mapping using differential GPS and conduct field studies. They also reoccupy an existing GPS geodetic network that forms a profile across the active structure; it has been occupied once in 1995, thus, the annual occupations by students will provide critical new constraints on this important structure. Finally, students provide geo-referencing for existing imagery using hand-held GPS. They present the results of these three inter-related projects on a GIS system, using imagery or air photos as a context for detailed geomorphic mapping and as a backdrop for an active fault map with a GPS determined velocity field. Enhanced, innovative technical training and strengthening multiculturalism are the curricular goals. The project provides students with a broad base of GPS technical skills in a the context of student research in process-driven science. Undergraduate research fields expand to include those suitable to GPS technologies. Students will gain insight into observations and errors, and understanding of how those uncertainties propagate from observations to results. Finally, it seeds collaboration between CWU, a regional comprehensive university, and Heritage College, which serves a strong Native American and Hispanic constituency in central Washington. In addition, five other academic programs at CWU and Heritage will benefit from use of the equipment towards common technical goals.