Collaborative Research: Scaffolding Undergraduate Geoscience Inquiry Using New Loggable Google Earth Explorations

该项目正在加强各种本科教育机构基于实地考察的地球科学教育的学习成果。它正在利用建模技术（COLLADA和GigaPan）和虚拟地球（如Google Earth）的力量。在谷歌总部举行的与项目相关的彭罗斯专业会议正在一群正在设计、开发和实施创新虚拟实地考察的学术专家和研究助理之间实现范式转变。 虚拟实地考察使地球科学专业的学生能够在分布式教师网络的指导下充当自由的学习者。该项目使学生能够探索地球科学增强的谷歌地球体验，使用模型或“化身”来代表他们自己和他们的野外车辆。虚拟地形充满了计算机生成的岩石露头和岩石标本，学生们在解决虚拟侦探问题时发现和收集这些岩石标本。虚拟活动使学生能够举起和检查标本，并允许他们进行虚拟物理和化学分析，这有助于指导他们的实地测绘决策。除了传统的实地考察目的地，该项目还提供了一种机制，允许学生参观和考察真实的实地考察无法带他们去的虚拟地点，包括活火山的喷口和最深的海沟。学生们在自然灾害场景中扮演第一反应者的角色，并探索与过去地质时期相对应的古谷歌地球，从而扩大他们对“深时间”的理解和理解。该项目还使学生能够虚拟地探索月球和火星过去和现在的环境。 强有力的形成性评价组成部分贯穿整个项目，并为其发展提供信息。 指导该项目开发的一个关键特征是使用技术来跟踪学生的行动，并记录和搭建他们的虚拟实地活动。通过分析他们的行为，并通过比较新手和专家的轨迹，该项目正在评估，在真实的时间，每一个练习的潜力，以提高学生的学习，同时也提供即时反馈，鼓励和指导学生。

The project is enhancing the learning outcomes of fieldwork-based geoscience education across a diverse range of undergraduate educational institutions. It is leveraging the power of modeling technology (COLLADA and GigaPan) and virtual globes such as Google Earth. A project-related Penrose professional conference at Google Headquarters is enabling a paradigm-shift among a cohort of academic experts and research assistants who are designing, developing, and implementing innovative virtual field trips. The virtual field trips are allowing geoscience students to act as free-agent learners guided by distributed teacher networks. The project is enabling students to explore a geoscience-enhanced Google Earth experience using models or "avatars" to represent themselves and their field vehicles. The virtual terrain is peppered with computer-generated rock outcrops and rock specimens that students are discovering and collecting as they solve problems as virtual detectives. The virtual activities are enabling students to lift and examine specimens, and allowing them to perform virtual physical and chemical analyses that are helping to guide their field mapping decisions. In addition to traditional field destinations, the project is providing a mechanism that allows students to visit and examine virtual places where real field trips cannot take them, including the vents of active volcanoes and the deepest ocean trenches. Students are playing the roles of first-responders in natural disaster scenarios and are exploring Paleo-Google Earths that correspond to a number of past geologic periods, thus expanding their appreciation and understanding of "deep time". The project is also enabling students to virtually explore the past and present environments of the Moon and Mars. Strong formative evaluation components are embedded throughout the project and are informing its development. A key feature guiding the development of the project is the use of technology to track students' actions and to log and scaffold their virtual field activities. By analyzing their actions and - by comparing of novice versus expert tracks - the project is assessing, in real time, the potential of each exercise to improve student learning while also providing instant feedback, encouragement, and guidance to the students.