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

地质学（42）本项目探讨了在一系列本科地质学课程中使用陆地激光扫描（TLS）结合时间地形分析的价值，以提高学生对地貌过程的速率和风格的理解。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、山体滑坡、河流系统和海岸动力学的调查。这个项目正在研究这样一种假设，即地质学本科生收集和分析对当地重要的、活跃的景观的位置数据，从而更好地理解影响景观变化的关键（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）的合作教师团队正在获取并接受TLS系统的培训，并正在与当地土地使用机构合作，收集积极发展的景观的基线扫描。该小组正在为每个地点和每个机构的班级开展调查活动，并使用严格的评估程序评估其影响。这所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消退特别感兴趣。部落学院的教职员工和学生正在Lummi国家学校物理老师的支持下，将TLS监控整合到他们的学士学位课程和高中指导计划中。这所大学的教师正在将TLS扫描纳入高年级地貌学课程。在小型研究小组中，学生们：与当地土地使用机构合作，识别和评估积极发展的地貌；界定TLS测量的目标区域；设计和实施TLS调查；进行基础TLS数据处理，包括结合以往调查进行变形分析；在若干时间和长度尺度上对景观变化速率和模式的变异性进行量化；识别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）。正在收集学生对地质速率理解的教学前后数据。问卷调查和访谈的目的是测量先入为主的观念，然后评估学生完成时间地形活动后的变化。该项目的研究结果将通过“前沿地形学教学”网站（与国家自然科学图书馆交叉参考）公布，而经处理的时序图则将在世界自然大学景观观测站的网站上公布。这个项目的成果有利于那些已经拥有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区域性和文科院校。

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.