76 Geoscience Education II: Cognition and Learning in the Geosciences

Monday, 1 November 2010
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Room 203

GETTING THE INSIDE TRACK: HEAD-MOUNTED CAMERAS GIVE NEW PERSPECTIVE on PROCESS OF BEDROCK MAPPING

Paper number: 76-16
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 11:45 AM – 12:00 PM

Authors

Abstract

Several recent studies have used GPS tracks to explore the strategies that geologists use when mapping unfamiliar terrain and to determine whether navigational strategies correlate with map quality. These studies have found that certain navigation strategies are not associated with more successful maps, that geologists with more expertise in mapping tend to minimize their physical effort while maximizing the amount of area seen, and that experts more than novices tend to construct and test geologic mental models for the area while they are in the field. However, absent from these data is an explicit link between the geologist’s point of view during the field work and the GPS track.

In this pilot study we used a head-mounted video camera to document the actions of geologists as they worked on a bedrock geologic mapping task. We selected three subjects of varying levels of experience in bedrock mapping to wear the camera as they worked in the field. The participants also wore GPS units. By synchronizing the video data with GPS data, we are able to relate the geologists’ actions while collecting data with their location in the field. For the portions of the three subjects’ tracks that overlap, we compare each individual’s actions and behaviors while they occupied the same particular area. Variations among the three subjects include differences in use of equipment, interaction with rock outcrops and hand samples, note-taking strategies, and indications through spontaneous comment and notes regarding mental models of the underlying structural geology. Results of this study suggest that head-mounted cameras are a useful method for investigating different strategies of geologists as they make a geologic map.