Bringing the Field into the Classroom by Using Dynamic Digital Maps to Engage Undergraduate Students in Petrology Research

Journal of Geoscience Education, Sep 2004 by Boundy, Theresa M, Condit, Christopher

ABSTRACT

We utilize Dynamic Digital Maps (DDMs) in our undergraduate petrology courses to bring inaccessible and exciting volcanic field areas to the students in the classroom and to engage the students in research experiences. A DDM is a stand-alone computer program that presents interactive geologic maps, digital images, movies, animations, text and data (http://ddm.geo.umass.edu). We have developed exercises that use two different DDMs to provide field-based context for undergraduate research projects in petrology. The projects include a group research project on the evolution of the Tatara-San Pedro volcanic complex (Central Chilean Andes) and a laboratory exercise that studies magma evolution of the Springville Volcanic field (Arizona, USA). To assess the impact on student learning we administered a student assessment before and after the Tatara-San Pedro research project. We found significant gains in both students' confidence in ability to do research and to understand petrology. The DDM template is presently being converted to a cross-platform open-source format that will enable others to make their own DDMs for any field of interest. DDMs are versatile and can potentially be adapted effectively from 100-level introductory geology labs to research-oriented graduate level courses and in a variety of geologic sub-disciplines.

INTRODUCTION

Geology is a natural science with a fundamental grounding in fieldwork. The field provides a natural laboratory and is the most realistic environment in which to learn. Ideally there is no substitute for geologic fieldwork, where students make their own observations and then formulate and test their hypotheses. Several studies have recognized and quantified the value of field trips and geologic observations in the field for undergraduate geology majors (e.g. Munn et al., 1995; Huntoon et al., 2001). Recent publications by national scientific organizations (e.g. NRC, 1996; NSF, 1996; NRC, 2000; AAAS, 2001) have emphasized the need for more inquiry-directed science teaching and learning in the classroom, and engaging students in authentic research experiences. Hall-Wallace and McAuliffe (2002) demonstrated that dynamic maps have the potential for improving student's skills in problem solving, analysis, and spatial visualization. Recognizing these needs, we created a way to overcome the geographic challenges and introduce 'field-based' petrology research into our courses by bringing the 'field' in the form of maps, images, and QuickTime movies to the student using Dynamic Digital Maps (DDMs) to simulate this experience. The main learning objective is to engage students in research through using the DDMs, which provide innovative access to exciting field areas and research problems. DDMs have the potential to increase students' ability to integrate and synthesize diverse data and visualize space-time relationships.

Data for realistic field based problems can now be brought to students through use of Dynamic Digital Maps (DDMs). A Dynamic Digital Map of a particular area starts as an empty DDM-Template or program "shell" into which an author inserts information in order to enable the program to display maps, text and associated data in an organized way. Because DDMs are stand-alone programs, they need no other software (including web browsers) to present the geologic context in a much more comprehensive framework than can a hard-copy geologic map. Through links built into the software, they can conveniently present detailed high quality color maps along with field images, microphotographs, video clips, animations and analytical data. DDMs offer a variety of options to engage students in field-based research in situations where the field is not accessible. DDMs have the potential to impact student learning by reinforcing concepts through discovery, and by improving problem solving, visualization and computational skills. Investigations with DDMs allow students to identify physical and spatial relationships by constructing multiple representations of data in the form of maps, tables, and charts. Our DDMs include rock type and sample mineralogy, paleomagnetic data, major and minor element data, isotope geochemistry and geochronologic data. The DDM tools enable immediate analyses and access to visualization of large geologic multi-component data sets.

In this paper we describe how Dynamic Digital Maps (Condit, 1995a, 2000) are used as a basis for class projects in undergraduate one-semester igneous and metamorphic petrology courses, and report on the impact on student learning. These DDMs provide a simulated field experience and enable the students to use field-based information to select samples and to help formulate and test their own hypotheses on the petrologic evolution of the rocks. The main purpose was to have students actively engaged in research with essential field based grounding. The Springerville volcanic field (SVF) project (Condit, 1995b), examines an intraplate continental volcanic field. Students select a pair of lava flows based on field relations that might be related by fractional crystallization, and then to run a mass-balance model on the pair to test to test their hypothesis. Tatara-San Pedro (TSP) volcanic complex involves examining a Chilean subduction-zone related are volcano. Students develop a research project to study selected aspects of the evolution of the volcano. The students conducted the projects in collaborative groups. Both DDMs include geochemical and geophysical data sets, which could be used for modeling. The DDMs described in the initial version of this paper are stand-alone programs that work only on the Macintosh platform. However, versatile, cross-platform web-enabled versions have since been developed and beta-versions of these are currently available at the URL listed at the end of the next section. The application of DDMs is not limited to the field of petrology; effective projects can be developed for other sub-disciplines in geology such as geomorphology, structural geology and map-based introductory geology labs. For example, Condit (2000) presents a DDM of New England geology has been used in the introductory geology labs at University of Massachusetts-Amherst to give the students a virtual field trip of the local geology.