Going virtual
Faculty members knew in March that the pandemic might threaten a course that’s traditionally experienced by students piling into vans, camping out — often off the grid — for weeks. So they got to work inventorying available material.
One perk is that more than 100 others were hoping also to create their camps in virtual form. They became a resource. But Penn State’s field camp, which is different than most because it’s a capstone course — an end cap to education rather than an introduction into fieldwork — meant faculty members would have to create much of the experience on their own.
It helped that Roman DiBiase, Rudy L. Slingerland Early Career Professor of geosciences, had amassed high-resolution imagery of places such as the Teton Range and Bighorn Basin, and Julia Carr, a geosciences graduate student who assisted the course, flew drones during previous field camps. So students could zoom in, using digital tools, close enough to measure grain sizes in the formations, or zoom out far enough to get a birds-eye view. Assistant Research Professor Erin DiMaggio, Professor Donald Fisher and Assistant Professor Andrew Smye joined in constructing the bulk of the Western U.S. course while Assistant Research Professor Dave Yoxtheimer designed a portion of the course focused on Pennsylvania geology related to the natural gas industry.
“We looked at our objectives for field camp and how we could best fulfill them,” Fisher said. "One great thing about field camp is getting students out there, thinking on their own, and collecting all their data in the field and having to interpret it. We knew that virtually we could expose them to datasets in different field areas where they could collect their own data using GIS and other tools.”
Course creators were quick to point out that the virtual experience won’t replace traditional field camp, but it’s a great tool to have for unique situations, and also increases the accessibility of the experience of field camp.
The concept of students applying what they know to understanding and solving geological problems was still a key component of the course.
“One of the main goals is for students to synthesize what they have learned in their geosciences courses,” DiMaggio said. “They’re using these skill sets to solve real-world problems — pulling from their geoscience knowledge to interpret earth processes.”
Student experience
Reilly, a senior, said she was looking forward to field camp, so, naturally, the idea of it being canceled or offered virtually weighed on her. She praised faculty members for their efforts.
“Although online, the faculty and teaching assistants did a great job integrating ‘virtual’ field images into Google Earth tours, so it felt as close to physically being there as possible,” Reilly said. “I was surprised that the information provided about our areas of study was so accessible.”