52 Digital Learning Innovation in the Geosciences

Sunday, 22 September 2019
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Special Presentation Area Hall A, North Building

REVITALIZING THE CLASSIC "STREETCAR TO SUBDUCTION" FIELD GUIDE VIA GOOGLE EARTH

Paper number: 52-2
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 1:40 PM – 1:45 PM

Authors

Abstract

New technologies for data visualization and discovery, and new education technologies, are transforming geoscience education, enabling active modes of discovery-based learning at scale. Interactive simulations, immersive and extended-reality environments, adaptive and personalized learning platforms, and digital tutoring are examples of technologies that enable rich, active learning experiences in and out of traditional classrooms. This symposium includes presentations, panel discussion, and a hands-on showcase to explore the state of the art and future frontier.

We have developed a digital field trip guide of the San Francisco Bay Area to provide an interactive and immersive mobile learning experience. In collaboration with Google and supported by the American Geophysical Union, we revised Clyde Wahrhaftig’s 1984 guide "A Streetcar to Subduction, and other Plate Tectonic Trips by Public Transport in San Francisco" for the modern digital audience. We developed “Streetcar to Subduction 2.0" via the newly-released Google Earth content creation tools so the guide will be available through the browser-based version of Google Earth. This new platform allows field trip participants to adapt and personalize their field experience via a smartphone or cellular-enabled device in the field. The guide features a dozen general locations (e.g. "San Gregorio Fault", "Marin Headlands", or "Angel Island") and is aimed at an undergraduate geology student audience. Logistical details such as directions and durations are outsourced to the user’s preferred map app. Each location features 5-15 sites, which are described using a combination of original imagery, video, and other digital media to guide the user to the key characteristics of an exposure or feature that facilitate geological interpretation. Additional technical details for the geoscientific specialist are hosted on an accompanying "deep dive" webpage to provide discovery-based learning opportunities for users of all levels of expertise. The full version of the new "Streetcar" will be premiered at the AGU Fall Meeting when the meeting returns to the Moscone Center after 2 years away and on the 35th anniversary of Wahrhaftig's original publication.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 51, No. 5

doi: 10.1130/abs/2019AM-333344

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