HR: 10:20h
AN: ED12A-01    [Abstracts]
TI: Using Digital Time-Lapse Videos to Teach Geomorphic Processes to Undergraduates
AU: * Clark, D H
EM: Doug.Clark@wwu.edu
AF: Geology Dept., Western Washington Univ., Bellingham, WA 98225-9080 United States
AU: Linneman, S R
EM: Scott.Linneman@wwu.edu
AF: Geology Dept., Western Washington Univ., Bellingham, WA 98225-9080 United States
AU: Fuller, J
AF: Geology Dept., Western Washington Univ., Bellingham, WA 98225-9080 United States
AB: We demonstrate the use of relatively low-cost, computer-based digital imagery to create time-lapse videos of two distinct geomorphic processes in order to help students grasp the significance of the rates, styles, and temporal dependence of geologic phenomena. Student interviews indicate that such videos help them to understand the relationship between processes and landform development. Time-lapse videos have been used extensively in some sciences (e.g., biology - http://sbcf.iu.edu/goodpract/hangarter.html, meteorology - http://www.apple.com/education/hed/aua0101s/meteor/, chemistry - http://www.chem.yorku.ca/profs/hempsted/chemed/home.html) to demonstrate gradual processes that are difficult for many students to visualize. Most geologic processes are slower still, and are consequently even more difficult for students to grasp, yet time-lapse videos are rarely used in earth science classrooms. The advent of inexpensive web-cams and computers provides a new means to explore the temporal dimension of earth surface processes. To test the use of time-lapse videos in geoscience education, we are developing time-lapse movies that record the evolution of two landforms: a stream-table delta and a large, natural, active landslide. The former involves well-known processes in a controlled, repeatable laboratory experiment, whereas the latter tracks the developing dynamics of an otherwise poorly understood slope failure. The stream-table delta is small and grows in ca. 2 days; we capture a frame on an overhead web-cam every 3 minutes. Before seeing the video, students are asked to hypothesize how the delta will grow through time. The final time-lapse video, ca. 20-80 MB, elegantly shows channel migration, progradation rates, and formation of major geomorphic elements (topset, foreset, bottomset beds). The web-cam can also be "zoomed-in" to show smaller-scale processes, such as bedload transfer, and foreset slumping. Post-lab tests and interviews with students indicate that these time-lapse videos significantly improve student interest in the material, and comprehension of the processes. In contrast, the natural landslide is relatively unconstrained, and its processes of movement, both gradual and catastrophic, are essentially impossible to observe directly without the aid of time-lapse imagery. We are constructing a remote digital camera, mounted in a tree, which will capture 1-2 photos/day of the toe. The toe is extremely active geomorphically, and the time-lapse movie should help us (and the students) to constrain the style, frequency, and rates of movement, surface slumping, and debris-flow generation. Because we have also installed a remote weather station on the landslide, we will be able to test the links between these processes and local climate conditions.
UR: http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~dhclark/webcam.htm
DE: 0820 Curriculum and laboratory design
DE: 0825 Teaching methods
DE: 0845 Instructional tools
DE: 0850 Geoscience education research
DE: 0994 Instruments and techniques
SC: Education and Human Resourcese [ED]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting