Virtual Mapping and Petrologic Interpretation
Bernhardt Saini-Eidukat1, Donald P. Schwert1, and Brian M. Slator2
1
Dept. of Geosciences, 2Dept. of Computer Science
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105-5517
Email: sainieid@badlands.nodak.edu
We are developing a virtual mapping and petrologic interpretation environment.
This takes the form of a synthetic, virtual world, Planet Oit, where students are given the
means and the equipment to carry out petrologic investigation as a petrologist would. The
environment is designed to give students an authentic experience that includes elements
of:
1. exploration of a spatially oriented, virtual, world;
2. practical, field oriented, expedition planning and decision making;
3. scientific problem solving (i.e. a "hands on" approach to mapping and
petrologic investigation).
The game-like environment , which will teach principles of petrology, is a
networked, multi-player, simulation-based, educational environment that illustrates our
role-based pedagogical approach.
Planet Oit can be visited at http://oit.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/
Background
To play the game, students are transported to the planet's surface and acquire a
standard set of field instruments. They are issued an "electronic log book" to record their
findings and, most importantly, are assigned a sequence of exploratory goals. The
students make their field observations, conduct small experiments, take note of the
environment, and generally act like geologists as they work towards their goal. A scoring
system has been developed, so that students can compete with each other and with
themselves.
Planet Oit is being developed using the freely available Xerox PARC
LambdaMOO (Curtis, 1992, 1997), which is an environment for creating text-based
virtual worlds. Students are given an authentic petrologic goal, e.g., to map a
metamorphic terrane. Accomplishing this goal entails mastering several geologic
concepts and procedures, and demonstrates student mastery of the material. The first
module, which has been tested on large (>400) classes of physical geology students ,
involves mineral exploration, where students are expected to plan an expedition, locate
mineral deposits, and survive the somewhat hostile virtual environment in order to report
on it. More advanced modules, including virtual mapping and petrologic interpretation,
are under development. The first version is text-based; a graphical interface is also being
constructed.
The Context
Science isn’t just facts. More than anything else, a science is an internally consistent and
coherent set of beliefs, practices, and tools. We have been instructing students to remember
“facts” (i.e., beliefs) outside of the context in which those facts are understood. While this might
not have been a problem, history has shown that teaching some subset of a science’s beliefs
devoid of their belief context has been unsuccessful in helping students to learn science.
Authentic instruction (Brown, Collins, and Duguid, 1989) would allow the student to
participate in the practices of the working scientist. Students would be a part of laboratory
research or field work. Students would have access to the tools of the working scientist and
would, in every case, be shepherded through the scientific process. New concepts — the beliefs
of the scientist — would be introduced in this naturalistic context (McGee, Howard & Hong,
1998).
The experiences provided to the student within a virtual world can be both
meaningful and authentic, although some trade-off is required to make it fun,
challenging, and occasionally unpredictable. The goal is to have the student assume the
role of a geologist in applying the scientific method to observations and measurements
they makes in this virtual world. By keeping these experiences structured, albeit loosely,
students are self-directed into a “learn by doing” process (Dewey, 1900), patterned on
that applied in field-training. The virtual world can be designed to operate
simultaneously at all levels of sophistication, thus allowing students to encounter
simulated situations relevant to their level of training and expertise.
Petrologic Investigation
Petrologists are engaged in the study of the "origin, occurrence, structure, and
history of rocks, esp. igneous and metamorphic rocks" (Bates and Jackson, 1984).
Students can learn petrology by learning the process of petrologic investigation, including
taking samples, petrographic analysis of thin sections, whole rock chemical analysis for
major and trace elements, microprobe analysis of mineral grains, etc. and by evaluating
the data obtained in a theoretical context.
However, in the real world, students may not have access to all the equipment
necessary for such a complete investigation. We are building an environment in which
expensive analytical tools can be built virtually. A student will be able to take a sample of
a garnet-biotite schist, view a thin section of it, make microprobe analyses of coexisting
garnet and biotite, collect radiogenic isotope analyses, all while perhaps collaborating
with a peer from a different university.
Tutoring
A key feature of educational media is the ability to tutor students. On Planet Oit,
tutoring is done through unintrusive but proactive software agents. Agents monitor
student actions and “visit” students as the need arises. Tutors give advice, but they
neither mandate or insist on student actions nor block or prevent student actions. They
provide assistance to players in the course of their diagnostic reasoning within the
scientific problem solving required to accomplish their goals. The tutors work from
knowledge of the geology, knowledge of the "experiments" needed to confirm or deny
the identity of an object (e.g. contact metamorphism of limestone to marble), and the
student's history.
Discussion
This work is part of a larger project by the NDSU World Wide Web Instructional
Committee (WWWIC; McClean et al., 1999; Slator et al., 1999; see
http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/wwwic/). WWWIC believes that virtual role-playing
environments can be powerful mechanisms for teaching, provided they are constructed
such that learning how to play and win the game contributes to a player's understanding
of real-world concepts and procedures. Virtual classrooms and virtual laboratories may
help solve many of the problems faced in education: distance learning becomes a reality,
learner diversity is accommodated (both in terms of learning styles and life styles), and in
many cases the curriculum becomes more active, more role-based, more self-paced, and
more “learn by doing” than “learn by listening.”
Acknowledgments
Development of Planet Oit is funded by the National Science Foundation under
grants DUE-9752548 and EAR-9809761. We also acknowledge the large team of
dedicated undergraduate and graduate students in the computer and earth sciences who
have made this project so successful. Special thanks are due to John Bauer for Java
graphical client development, to Rebecca Potter for graphical development, to Otto
Borchert for simulation development, to Dean Vestal, Ned Krueger, Bryan Bandli, and
Jane Willenbring, for geology content development and assessment, to Mark Tinguely,
who saved our world when its universe imploded, and to Dave Schmidt for the name:
Planet Oit.
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