Empowering Students to Engage With, and Contribute to, Multi-Disciplinary Learning Activities Using Open, Interactive Virtual Geoscience Field Sites and Specimens

Interactive learning activities, materials and corresponding infrastructure will be developed to engage students in learning experiences related to multi-disciplinary geoscience problems and phenomena. Static and dynamic resources involving maps and virtual field sites or specimens do exist, however most are restricted to specific topics or rely on special-purpose tools with data sometimes housed off campus. This project will pilot learning activities for specific courses across six different UBC teaching, learning and outreach units. Students will be able to create, review, explore and analyze virtual geo-referenced field sites, field specimens or materials and allied information. To accomplish this, we will leverage earlier initiatives to build and test a versatile collection with corresponding management and display tools based on existing capabilities and UBC expertise in educational technology. These Open Education Resources will be accessible beyond UBC while remaining easy to maintain and expand by UBC faculty, staff and students.

Stuart Sutherland, Professor of Teaching, Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (EOAS), Faculty of Science
Maja Krzic, Professor, Forestry of Land and Food Systems
Loch Brown, Senior instructor, Geography, Forestry of Arts
Brett Gilley, Senior instructor, EOAS, Faculty of Science and Vantage College
Lucy Porritt, Lecturer, EOAS, Faculty of Science
Louise Longridge, Lecturer, EOAS, Faculty of Science
Kirsten Hodge, Lecturer, EOAS, Faculty of Science / Director, Pacific Museum of Earth