Optional Geopads Day
To take advantage of the two largely separate participant pools for Using GIS and Remote Sensing to Teach Geoscience and Teaching Geoscience in the Field, there is an optional overlap day between the two workshops on August 12, 2010. Participants who have registered and paid for this extra day will get the opportunity to use ruggedized computer systems (commonly referred to as Geopads) in a field excursion in the Paradise valley, south of Livingston, MT, and north of Yellowstone National Park.
The basic plan is that a local geologist expert will team up with one of our invited GeoPad experts to set up a field station for the day. The rest of the participants will ride in 15 person vans and will rotate from one station to the next at 2 hour intervals. (We may also have a few personal cars to help move people around—all roads are paved or passable Forest Service roads). The sites are mostly within a 15 minute drive from each other. The idea is that participants will get to see a variety of geologic features in a relatively small area, and they will also get to see a lot of different GeoPad hardware, software and applications. We'll end the day with a soak in Chico Hot Springs, and then we'll have a BBQ dinner on the lawn at Chico. It's a long day, but one that should be very interesting and fun.
The tentative schedule for the day is:
- 7:00 AM - Meet in the Student Union for a buffet breakfast and to pack a bag lunch for the road
- 7:30 AM - Load into vans and start out for the first station stop. There will be 4 vans and 4 stations. Each van will go to a separate field station and will rotate through the other stations over the course of the day.
- ~8:30 AM - Arrive at first station. This will be a longer stay at this site to allow for set up, getting oriented, etc.
- 11:00 AM - Rotate to second demonstration site
- 1:00 PM - Rotate to third demonstration site
- 3:00 PM - Rotate to fourth demonstration site
- 5:00 PM - Converge on Chico Hot Springs (Be sure to bring a bathing suit!)
- ~7:00 PM - BBQ dinner, end of day discussion, and evaluation of the day
- ~9:00 PM - Return to Bozeman