Improving Student Learning During Travel Time on Field Trips Using an Innovative, Portable Audio/video System

Journal of Geoscience Education, Mar 2006 by Elkins, Joe T, Elkins, Nichole M L

ABSTRACT

The authors developed a portable audio/video system using consumer electronics to make use of travel time during field trips. This system gives field instructors the ability to deliver PowerPoint presentations, instructional videos/DVDs, and CD-ROMs to students while in-route to field stops. This information technology makes use of the time in-route as instructional time, increases the time students participating in field excursions have in the field to make observations, and expands the use of information technology from being primarily a campus-based pedagogical aid to a field-oriented pedagogical tool that is used to focus the students on the academic objectives for upcoming field stops. Student interviews indicate that: a.) the use of this technology was a positive experience, b.) students perceived that the DVD and PowerPoint media helped focus their attention on upcoming field stops, and c.) the use of the devices increased the total time they had outside the vehicle for study. Instructors using the technology to show interdisciplinary media observed enhanced student assimilation of topics relevant to various courses of study on an extended interdisciplinary, field-based educational program.

INTRODUCTION

Time spent in vehicles traveling to field stops is unavoidable on field trips. Depending on the distance from the departure point to the field stop and the duration of the excursion, travel time during field trips can range from hours on a one-day excursion to days on expeditions such as geology field camps that last for weeks. Historically, the time spent transporting students from a departure point to the academic setting, whether to campus or a field stop, has rarely been used for formalized instruction (Prairie Ecology Bus, 2004, Saks, 1991, Vaughan, 1972). The most common application of electronics for instructional purposes during travel time on geology field trips is the use of hand-held radios between vehicles of multi-vehicle caravans (e.g. "The outcrop we are going to pass up here on the right shows you an example of..."). Because in-route instruction is typically sporadic, students frequently engage in activities that are irrelevant to the expedition's academic purpose (Science Education Resource Center, 2002). Travel time has been viewed as wasted time and as one of the key impediments to the justification of extensive field trips (Frankel et al, 2003).

The authors developed four introductory-level field-based courses at Bowling Green State University that require students and staff members to spend a significant amount of time traveling to field stops: Geology 250- Field-based Physical Geology (5hrs), Geology 251- Field-based Historical Geology (5hrs), American Culture Studies 252- Indigenous Cultures of North America (3hrs), and Environmental Studies 253-Environments in Context (3hrs) (Elkins and Lyle-Elkins, 2004). The courses are taught concurrently in an interdisciplinary format as part of a nine-week, 14,500 mile expeditionary field trip to 29 national parks and public lands across the United States during fall semester. The program is called "Geojourney" (http://www.geojourney.org) and the itinerary for this program is designed to use national parks, public lands, museums, visitor centers, and industrial sites as the basis for teaching introductory-level geoscience concepts. The expedition travels by van, moving every few days to new campsites across the US near national parklands including: Badlands, Yellowstone, Glacier, Mt. St. Helens, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, and Great Smoky Mountains. The itinerary is designed to give students first-hand experience in a wide range of geographic environments and an opportunity to study each subject in a holistic framework. The Geojourney expedition was inspired by our experience with and the long-term success of the University of Georgia Interdisciplinary Field Program (LyIe et al., 2002).

While Geojourney's innovative itinerary affords students field experience in locations across the United States, the itinerary also requires considerable time in vehicles traveling to these field localities. Indeed, the total time Geojourney students spend in vehicles exceeds the total number of contact hours a full-time student on campus spends in classrooms during a sixteen week semester. (Total time in vehicles on Geojourney = 14,500mi/60mph = 241.66 hrs; total time in class during a 16-week semester = 15hrs/week x 16 weeks = 240 hrs.). With so much time spent in vehicles during the nine-week field course, the authors wanted to devise a means of turning 'wasted' travel time into instructional opportunities.

Because many courses on campuses utilize presentation software and educational videos as instructional aids in large lecture sections, we wanted to develop an instructional medium for use during travel time that would allow time in-route to serve a similar pedagogical function as attending a lecture on campus. Moreover, since the primary purpose of designing a field-based course was to give students experience with geology in its natural context, we wanted to use the time in-route to deliver preparatory material pertinent to the upcoming field stop. Preparatory lectures and videos delivered during travel time allow us to maximize the total time students have in the field to take advantage of inquiry-based learning. Additionally, we wanted to use videos to help emphasize interdisciplinary ideas in our particular field courses and to serve as nuclei for discussions in-route and in camp. Toward this effort, we developed and used a portable digital audio-visual system (Figures 1 and 2) for the first time during the fall 2004 Geojourney field season (Elkins and Lyle-Elkins, 2004). We assembled the device in one of the vehicles in our caravan and rotated the student passengers into that van during drive times so that all eighteen students on the program had heard the same PowerPoint-assisted presentation or had watched the same video before arriving at the day's field stop.