Improving Student Understanding of Geological Rates via Chronotopographic Analysis of Active Landscapes

地质学（42）本项目调查了使用地面激光扫描（TLS）在一系列本科地质学课程中纳入年代地形分析的价值，以提高学生对地貌过程速率和样式的理解。 重复的高分辨率TLS调查已经开始详细跟踪活动景观的演变，包括对活动断层、冰川作用、滑坡、河流系统和海岸动力学的调查。 该项目正在调查的假设，本科地质学学生收集和分析位置数据，为当地重要的，活跃的景观发展的关键（和非稳定）地貌过程影响景观变化的更好的感觉。 来自三个机构（区域大学，社区学院和部落学院）的协作教师团队正在获取TLS系统并接受培训，并正在收集与当地土地使用机构合作确定的积极发展景观的基线扫描。 该小组正在为每个地点和每个机构的班级制定调查活动，并使用严格的评价程序评估其影响。 两年制大学的教职员工和学生对监测校园附近沿海悬崖的快速撤退特别感兴趣。 部落学院的教职员工和学生正在将TLS监测纳入他们的学士学位课程，并在Lummi Nation School物理教师的支持下纳入高中辅导计划。 大学教师正在将TLS扫描纳入高级师地貌学课程。 在小型研究小组中，学生们：与当地土地使用机构合作，以确定和评估一个积极发展的地形;定义TLS测量的目标区域;设计和进行TLS调查;进行基本的TLS数据处理，包括与过去的调查变形分析;量化在几个时间和长度尺度上景观变化的速率和模式的变化;确定TLS数据的不确定性和局限性，以及它们相对于定性评估的价值（例如，地貌测绘、重复摄影等）。 正在收集关于学生对地质速率的理解的教学前和教学后数据。问卷和访谈的目的是测量先入之见，然后评估学生完成时间地形活动后的变化。该项目的成果正通过“地貌学教学前沿”网站（与国家地貌学研究所相互参照）传播，经处理的年代地形序列正张贴在WWU景观观测站网站上。 该项目的结果有利于可能已经拥有TLS系统的研究型大学，以及可能正在评估将这种“革命性”技术纳入其本科课程的价值的区域和文科机构。

Geology (42) This project investigates the value of incorporating chronotopographic analysis across a range of undergraduate geology courses using terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) to improve student understanding of the rates and styles of geomorphic processes. Repeat high-resolution TLS surveys have begun to track, in detail, the evolution of active landscapes, including investigations of active faulting, glaciation, landslides, fluvial systems and coastal dynamics. This project is investigating the hypothesis that undergraduate geology students who collect and analyze positional data for locally-important, active landscapes develop a better sense of the critical (and non-steady) geomorphic processes affecting landscape change. A collaborative faculty team from three institutions (regional university, community college, and tribal college) are acquiring and being trained on a TLS system and are collecting baseline scans of actively evolving landscapes identified in cooperation with local land-use agencies. The team is developing inquiry activities for each site and for classes at each institution, and assessing their impact using rigorous evaluation procedures. The 2-year college faculty and students are especially interested in monitoring rapid retreat of coastal bluffs near their campus. The tribal college faculty and students are integrating the TLS monitoring into their BA degree program and into a high school mentoring program with the support of the Lummi Nation School physics teacher. The university faculty are incorporating the TLS scanning into upper division geomorphology courses. In small research teams, students are: partnering with a local land-use agency to identify and evaluate an actively evolving landform; defining target zones for TLS surveying; designing and conducting a TLS survey; conducting basic TLS data processing, including deformation analysis with past surveys; quantifying variability in rates and modes of landscape change at several time and length scales; and identifying uncertainties and limits of TLS data, and their value relative to qualitative assessments (e.g., geomorphic mapping, repeat photography, etc.). Pre- and post-instruction data on student understanding of geological rates are being collected. Questionnaires and interviews are designed to measure preconceptions and then evaluate change after students complete the chronotopographic activities. The results of this project are being disseminated through the "On the Cutting Edge Teaching Geomorphology" web site (cross-referenced with NSDL), and the processed chronotopographic sequences are being posted on the WWU Landscape Observatory web site. The results of this project benefit research universities that may already have a TLS system, and regional and liberal arts institutions, which may be evaluating the value of incorporating this 'revolutionary' technology into their undergraduate curricula.