Barrier Islands and Coastal Geomorphology

Mark Bowen

University of Wisconsin Oshkosh

This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Peer Reviewed Teaching Activities collection. (view details)

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This activity has received positive reviews in a peer review process involving five review categories. The five categories included in the process are

Scientific Accuracy
Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
Pedagogic Effectiveness
Robustness (usability and dependability of all components)
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Initial Publication Date: November 24, 2014 | Reviewed: July 21, 2015 (see revision history: 2 events)

Summary

Students use Google Earth to evaluate barrier island evolution and migration and identify coastal landforms.

Coastal-zone | College Introductory

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Context

Audience

The activity is used in an online undergraduate introductory physical geography course. The focus of the course is landforms and soils. The course is predominantly composed of non-majors.

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

Students should be familiar with the basic tools and functions of Google Earth

How the activity is situated in the course

This is a stand-alone exercise that reinforces concepts introduced in lecture.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

Utilize historical aerial imagery to measure change in landform position over time
Calculate migration rates of barrier islands
Determine direction of longshore currents
Identify coastal landforms using Google Earth

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

Other skills goals for this activity

Description of the activity/assignment

Students utilize the historical imagery function in Google Earth to determine the position of a barrier island on two different images collected in 1995 and 2013; they also compare to different topographic maps, one created in 1994 and the other in 2011. They use the measure tool in Google Earth to determine how far the island has migrated. They then calculate the migration rate, how far it would migrate in a give time period, and how long it would take to migrate a given distance. Finally, students navigate to a variety of locations to identify coastal landforms.

Determining whether students have met the goals

Students complete the exercise during the week it is assigned. Upon completion of the exercise, students must complete an online quiz that consists of the same questions in the exercise. The online quiz is within the Desire 2 Learn (D2L) online learning platform, so answers are automatically graded and imported into the student's grade book.

More information about assessment tools and techniques.

Teaching materials and tips

Activity Description/Assignment: Barrier Islands and Coastal Geomorphology exercise (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 30kB Nov24 14)

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Instructors Notes:
This exercise was developed for an online class and intended for students to work independently. It is helpful if the students have already completed an introduction to Google Earth exercise prior to completing this exercise to become familiar with the tools and functions available in Google Earth.
Solution Set:
Barrier Islands and Coastal Geomorphology answer key -- private instructor-only file