Introduction:
Students not majoring in science sometimes find the laboratory portion of their general education science courses to be burdensome. Their lack of familiarity with scientific practice and procedures makes the laboratory an alien environment for them, a situation that makes time spent in lab less productive than it could otherwise be. In many cases the students don't take the lab experience with them to construct relationships with lecture/discussion materials or to extend it to other disciplines.
Interactive pre-lab and post-lab activities may provide a vehicle for aiding in constructing connections between the lab experience and the rest of the curriculum. While it is often argued that the laboratory is where the student learns to use a scientific approach to problem solving, thereby meeting a common goal of providing the student familiarity with different modes of thinking, it is also important to stress that the laboratory sciences provide the most immediate way for students to attempt connecting observations and theories. In the geological sciences, the long history of human/planet interactions for resources and recreation, laboratory experiences can also be connected to other disciplines such as art, economics, and demographics.
Proposal:
I propose to develop a set of computer based interactive exercises to be used to enhance the laboratory exercises in introductory physical geology. The academic goals I hope to achieve are:
In our introductory course at Centenary, our syllabus has major units:
Except during the weeks on minerals and rocks, there is little time to reinforce the work from the previous week; there is also little time to synthesize the material and see relationships between the course components. For example, during the labs on minerals and rocks, we have tried to get them to do a synthesis in terms of process. To these ends, we ask them to start with one of the coarse-grained igneous rocks and then use other rocks from the samples available to them to construct and example of the rock cycle. The students come to a better understanding of how weathering affects rock materials, the protolith/metamorphic rock relationship, and other rock-forming processes. This approach doesn't reinforce map skills from the first two labs however, and by the time we get to last lab exercises review of maps takes up valuable time.
I propose to develop a set of computer-based supplementary exercises based on real examples and case studies to achieve better integration of laboratory materials, both internally in the laboratory course and externally to the lecture/discussion course. During the first two weeks of the course, students would work with a local topographic map interpreting slopes variations and other descriptive geomorphic parameters that we could observe on a field trip during a lab period. During the plate tectonics section, the enhancements will include a more detailed study of the San Andreas fault system with students retrieving information about the most recent earthquakes, fault movements, and strain data to better understand the nature of a plate boundary.
The mineral and rock labs will be supported by work with topographic and geologic maps accompanied by rock data for the area. I propose to use materials about the Jemez Mountains and western Rio Grande rift with igneous rocks, the Grand Canyon for sedimentary rocks, and a portion of the Southern or New England Appalachians for metamorphic rocks. The last labs on structures and age relationships will build on the three area studies and refer back to the tectonics exercises.
The advantages of doing these enhancements as interactive computer projects are several. This approach is resource conservative in that replacement of maps and other perishable supplies is reduced. Outcrop photographs can be made available as scanned images as virtually no cost allowing more detail about the geology of an area to be presented in high quality images.
Students will be able to work with these maps and images on the computer, labeling and drawing boundaries for interpretation without destroying the images or maps. Students will also be able to work at whatever pace they find comfortable to master the material and interactive quizzes can be interspersed so students can assess their progress and level of mastery.
Technical requirements and support:Materials necessary for constructing these exercises include appropriate computer peripherals and software. The Geology Department has exceptional computer facilities including flatbed and slide scanners, ZIP drives installed in or on all computers, and multimedia support on all departmental computers. Academic versions of Authorware and Director are available as are several HTML editors. Technological requirements for exercise construction are clearly met.
The college is developing enhanced computer labs at this time that will allow delivery of these exercises either in stand alone mode for Authorware and Director products or in packages suitable for delivery over the web.
I have completed the consortial technology workshops in web authoring and multimedia authoring, so I am comfortable with the construction media. I expect it will be necessary to consult occasionally with colleagues in the consortium about some of the authoring problems that will come up. I also intend to share my ideas before completing the project with colleagues in other geology departments in the consortium to try to facilitate integration of the materials with other laboratory schedules and laboratory manuals than those that we use at Centenary.
Timetable for implementation, assessment, and sharing across the consortium:
It is my intention to do most of the work of construction over the summer of 1998.
Implementation of the exercises would begin in fall semester, 1998 and continue through the spring semester. Assembling materials (photographs, maps, and other data) will be done during the spring semester of 1998. Feedback from student evaluations and anecdotal evidence about class performance during the fall semester will allow some modification for the spring. The key assessment instrument will be the class exams on which we expect to see improvement. Many of the exercise will be available on a web site for others in the consortium to examine and use. Stand alone copies can also be made available for downloading over the web.