Collaborative Research: Bringing Problem Solving in the Field into the Classroom: Developing and Assessing Virtual Field Trips for Teaching Sedimentary and Introductory Geology

该项目正在开发、实施和评估新的交互式实地学习材料，以虚拟实地旅行的形式，用于教授本科生沉积地质学和地质学入门课程。正在为高级课程和入门课程开发虚拟实地考察，并以高级沉积地质学课程的实际实地考察为基础。专业摄影师正在协助拍摄、剪辑和制作虚拟实地考察。PI们正在南佛罗里达大学和希尔斯堡社区学院合作开发和测试这些材料。正在实施的探究式教学策略注重激发学生的兴趣，提高他们在虚拟场景中应用课堂知识、进行科学观察和解决问题的能力。与传统实地考察相关的一个关键问题是，由于涉及大量的时间、成本和责任，他们接触到大量和多样化的学生群体的能力有限。因此，该项目正在整合快速发展的网络和可视化技术，以消除学生参与的一些障碍，由此产生的虚拟实地旅行试图捕捉具有相似学习目标、练习和作业的实际实地旅行的本质。强有力的形成性和终结性评估战略正在评估虚拟实地旅行的项目活动和教育效果，包括对学生学习作为虚拟实地体验的作用进行定性和定量评估。随着它们的测试和完善，虚拟实地旅行正在通过地球科学家广泛使用的门户网站进行传播，区域和国家会议上的教师培训讲习班正在积极培训其他人如何在美国各地的地球科学课程中利用虚拟实地旅行。

The project is developing, implementing, and assessing new interactive field-based learning materials, in the form of virtual field trips, for teaching undergraduate sedimentary geology and introductory geology. The virtual field trips are being developed for advanced courses and for introductory courses and are based on actual field trips for an upper-level sedimentary geology course. Professional videographers are assisting with the filming, editing, and production of the virtual field trips. The PIs are collaboratively developing and testing the materials at the University of South Florida and at Hillsborough Community College. The inquiry-based teaching strategy that is being implemented is focusing on stimulating the interest of students and enhancing their ability to apply classroom knowledge, make scientific observations, and solve problems in a virtual field setting.A key issue associated with traditional field trips has been their limited ability to reach a large and diverse student population due to the substantial time, cost, and liability involved. Consequently, this project is integrating rapidly evolving web and visualization technologies to eliminate some of the obstacles to student participation, and the resultant virtual field trips are attempting to capture the essence of actual field trips with similar learning goals, exercises, and assignments. Strong formative and summative evaluation strategies are assessing both the project activities and the educational effectiveness of the virtual field trips, and include both qualitative and quantitative evaluation of student learning as a function of the virtual field experiences. As they are tested and refined, the virtual field trips are being disseminated through broadly used web portals utilized by geoscientists, and faculty training workshops at regional and national meetings are actively training others how to utilize the virtual field trips in geoscience courses across the United States.