NSF Awards: 1712495
Place-based education (PBE) is an effective strategy for geoscience education and engagement. However, traditional PBE in the field requires relatively big budgets and physical abilities. The computer-based immersive experience, which is less expensive and more accessible than field trips and camps, is a promising complement. Here, we present Google Earth GeoEd Video Library (GEGVL) and explain the design framework of GEGVL. GEGVL is designed by comprehensively considering the DeFT (Design, Functions, Tasks for learning with multiple representations) framework, Cognitive Load Theory, Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning, Four-phase model of interest, ARCS model of motivation (ARCS stands for Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction), and PBE (Place-Based Education) framework. The advantage of utilizing interactive functions and the realistic 3D environment of Google Earth provides a great platform for us to organize the geoscience videos based on the places and time. This intuitive way of presenting geoscience videos aims to trigger users’ situational interests and enhance their sense of connection to places in particular and the Earth in general. We add selected geoscience videos that we think do a good job of explaining geoscientific concepts and processes, so that users can immerse themselves into the topics of interest. Over 100 videos are included in GEGVL now. We discuss our assessment results, as well as some limitations of the current GEGVL version. Lastly, we demonstrate two applications of GEGVL: (1) GeoNews GEGVL: which allows users to explore event-based video(s) using a time slider in Google Earth; (2) GEGVL-STAAR: which focuses on preparing students for the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR). GEGVL files can be downloaded at: https://utdgss2016.wixsite.com/utdgss/gegvl
We invite contributions to GEGVL from all geoscientists and encourage alerts to videos that should be added, aid in reviewing videos and help assess GEGVL in the classroom.
Ning Wang
PhD Student
Hi Everyone, we are from the University of Texas at Dallas. Please feel free to leave us comments, or ideas! If you want to cooperate with us, please leave the comment below as well, we can talk more later via emails. Thank you so much!
Katie Seals
Hello, I am Katie Seals, a senior Geoscience undergraduate at The University of Texas at Dallas. I have been working with Ning Wang, Somie Nnachetta, and Dr. Robert Stern on this research project where I have done reviewing and coding for the video library. Feel free to comment or send us an email and we will get back to you as soon as possible!
Ning Wang
Catherine McCulloch
Senior Project Director
Hi,
This work is really interesting. I appreciate the use of geoscience videos. I'm wondering if you've identified a need or benefit to engaging students first with video of local environments and geo-phenomenon as you bridge what field trips and more conceptual and abstract modes of education can offer?
Katie Seals
Ning Wang
Ning Wang
PhD Student
Hi Catherine, thank you so much! That is a very interesting idea, we were more focusing on designing the way to organize different kinds of geoscience videos but your idea is something I have been thinking about for a while too, but we haven't had any chance to do the real project with others yet since there is some technical problem of using Google Earth desktop, it will stop show videos after several clicks so we are building the server-based platform to achieve our next step, which is more about the pilot project and implementation. Then definitely! We will try the idea to use it to help local people or students see how local field trips can be interesting! Thank you again for the great idea!
Katie Seals
I would also like to note that with field courses, there will be a briefing of the geology in the area prior to going into the field. Instructors might include visuals, but the background present tends to not include visual information. Having place based videos can help with the understanding of the area before collecting data.
Karen Royer
I am fascinated with the idea of placing a geological event in context of location and date. I appreciate looking at these events as part of a system. Your work helps me to conceptualize the scope of impact of one geological event quite swiftly. What has the feedback from students or teachers been about their engagement with the material as you present it? What are your future plans for this work?
Ning Wang
Ning Wang
PhD Student
Hi Karen, I am glad that you love the idea! Sure, we just surveyed about 71 undergraduate students at UT Dallas and the feedback is very good. We are writing a paper about it and there will be more details. But just a briefly summary:
All students in our survey agree that the GEGVL helped them develop a more holistic view of Earth science knowledge (63 strongly agree, 8 agree). Seventy students like the GEGVL (68 strongly agree and 2 agree) and only one student did not. So they are engaged mostly.
For the future project, we will try to make this design into a website platform and start to organize geoscience videos into the new system. Also non-place-based actually is very complicated so we need to figure out a way to foster learners better, so there will be some design problems that we need to solve too.
Mike Szydlowski
K-12 Science Coordinator
This is very interesting as I love the earth sciences but I find that it can be tough to interest students in the topic. Do you have any evidence yet that shows an increased engagement? Well done!
Ning Wang
Ning Wang
PhD Student
Hi Mike, thank you so much for the feedback! We didn't do an assessment at the K-12 level yet but for the lower-division undergraduate level, we surveyed 71 students, and 95% like the design and think the GEGVL can be a good tool for their self-learning and for their classes. Appreciate your kind words, we are trying to improve it into something more accessible (like a website) in the future.
David Campbell
Program Officer, retired
This is a great project. I wonder if you've communicated with researchers at Cornell's Paleontological Research Institute. They've developed Earth at Home (earth@home.org) which has a regional approach. There might be opportunities for collaboration.
Ning Wang
Ning Wang
PhD Student
Hi David! Cool! Thank you so much for sharing the information and giving the recommendation! We will contact them once we set up the platform. Very good advice! Appreciate it!