Establishment of the Upper Clark Fork River Basin Long-term Characterization Project: Platform for Discovery-based Undergraduate Teaching and Research

通过调整和整合东伊利诺伊大学和罗格斯大学野外营地实施的全站仪技术，我们建立了上克拉克福克河流域长期表征项目。该项目采用GPS索引（Jacobs等人，1997年和Anderson等人，1997年），创建了一系列不断发展的基于网络的数据集，并在蒙大拿州西部发起了一系列跨学科的环境研究。该项目的基础是在地质学课程的各个层次上实施的一系列本科生实验室和本科生研究项目。练习和本科生研究项目适应以发现为基础的学习，关注地球作为一个系统，并面向教师准备和将技术融入教育（Ireton等，1996）。该项目依靠在国家科学基金支持下购买的三种设备：1)两台全站仪，用于地形表面的高分辨率测量；2)用于三维高分辨率绝对定位的运动学GPS；3)用于表征细沉积物粒度分布的粒度分析仪。每一件设备都已成功地应用于其他地方的本科教学和研究项目（如Cowan 1993； Bryce and Taylor, 1995; Anderson et al., 1997； O’driscoll et al., 1997）。通过采用这些先前研究中描述的方法，并使用该设备在蒙大拿州西部的一系列研究地点量化地形和沉积物粒度的变化，不同世代的UM学生能够逐年比较数据集，记录这些系统随时间的演变，从而更清楚地理解和欣赏塑造它们的自然过程。国家研究委员会（1991年）和Post等人（1998年）介绍了这种时间序列数据库在研究和教育中的应用。学生数据集和随附的解释可在（http://www.cs.umt.edu/GEOLOGY/FAC/hendrix/hendrix.html）、在国家会议上的发言和在同行评议的期刊上发表。该项目的教学效果每年由一个由学生、项目负责人和其他教师组成的部门监督委员会评估两次。

By adapting and integrating the total station techniques implemented by field camps at Eastern Illinois University and Rutgers, we have established the Upper Clark Fork River Basin Long-Term Characterization Project. This project adapts GPS indexing (Jacobs, et al, 1997 and Anderson, et al, 1997) which creates a series of evolving, web-based datasets and initiates a series of cross-disciplinary environmental studies in western Montana. The foundation for the project is a series of undergraduate laboratories and undergraduate research projects implemented at all levels of the geology curriculum. Exercises and undergraduate research projects adapt discovery-based learning, focused on the Earth as a system, and are geared toward teacher preparation and integration of technology into education (Ireton, et al. 1996). The projects rely on three types of equipment purchased with NSF support: 1) two total station surveyors for high resolution surveying of topographic surfaces; 2) a kinematic GPS for high resolution absolute positioning in 3-D; and 3) a grain size analyzer for characterization of fine-sediment grain-size distributions. Each piece of equipment has been successfully implemented into undergraduate teaching and research programs elsewhere (e.g. Cowan 1993; Bryce and Taylor, 1995; Anderson et al., 1997; O'Driscoll et al., 1997). By adapting the approaches described by these previous studies and by using this equipment to quantify changes in topography and sediment grain size at a series of study sites across western Montana, different generations of UM students are able to compare data sets from year to year, document the evolution of these systems through time, and hence more clearly understand and appreciate the natural processes that shape them. The utility of such time-series data bases in research and education was presented by the National Research Council (1991) and Post et al. (1998). Student data sets and accompanying interpretations are made available at (http://www.cs.umt.edu/GEOLOGY/FAC/hendrix/hendrix.html), presentations at national meetings and publication in peer-reviewed journals. The teaching effectiveness of the project is evaluated twice per year by a departmental oversight committee that includes students, project PI's and other faculty.