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

地质学(42)这个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计时地形图分析的价值，以提高学生对地貌过程的速率和类型的理解。重复的高分辨率TLS调查已开始详细跟踪活动地貌的演变，包括调查活动断裂、冰川、山体滑坡、河流系统和海岸动力学。该项目旨在研究这样一种假设，即地质学本科生收集和分析局部重要的活跃地貌的位置数据，能够更好地理解影响地貌变化的关键(和非稳定)地貌过程。来自三个机构(地区大学、社区学院和部落学院)的合作教员小组正在获取TLS系统并接受培训，并正在收集与当地土地利用机构合作确定的积极演变的地貌的基线扫描。该小组正在为每个地点和每个机构的班级制定询问活动，并使用严格的评估程序评估其影响。两年制大学的教职员工和学生对监测校园附近海岸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伦米国立学校物理老师的支持下，将TLS监测整合到他们的学士学位课程和高中辅导计划中。大学教职员工正在将TLS扫描纳入高年级地貌学课程。在小型研究团队中，学生有：与当地土地利用机构合作，以确定和评估正在演变的地形；确定TLS调查的目标区；设计和进行TLS调查；进行基本的TLS数据处理，包括与以往调查的变形分析；量化几个时间和长度尺度上的景观变化速率和模式的变异性；以及确定TLS数据的不确定性和限制，及其相对于定性评估的价值(例如，地貌图、重复摄影等)。正在收集教学前和教学后关于学生对地质速率的理解的数据。问卷和访谈的目的是测量学生的先入为主的概念，然后在学生完成计时地形图活动后评估变化。该项目的成果正通过“前沿地貌学教学”网站传播(与NSDL交叉引用)，并将处理后的时间顺序张贴在WWU景观观测站网站上。这一项目的结果使可能已经拥有TLS系统的研究型大学以及地区和文科机构受益，这些机构可能正在评估将这一“革命性”技术纳入其本科课程的价值。

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.