GET Spatial Learning Blog: Postcards from a trading zone

Mapping for Decision-making

Addressing wicked challenges like climate change, natural hazards, and water resource planning requires working across and between time, space, jurisdictional, institutional, management, and social networks to improve societal outcomes (Cash et al., 2006). Thinking about time, space, and complex systems are key foci of geoscience education (Kastens et al., 2009) that make our discipline especially important to problem-solving. But while we feature programs designed around these learning goals, we may not be providing our students with what they need to work with communities facing the consequences of our planning and response networks. Improving connectivity between scientists and the community is central to science literacy and improving community outcomes (NAS, 2016). More

Learning to Form Accurate Mental Models

Drs. Alexandra Davatzes, Kristin Gagnier, Ilyse Resnick and Thomas F. Shipley wrote a featured article for Eos!
Read it here: Eos - Learning to Form Accurate Mental Models More

Modern Approaches to Digital Technologies for Geologic Fieldwork

Over the past two centuries, from William Smith's field investigation in England and Wales during the early 19^th century to the end of the 20^th century, the basic methodologies of field mapping and data collection remained essentially unchanged. Smith traveled around the British Isles on horseback and railway measuring the orientation of rock layers, recording observations in a field book, and using that data to hand draw a geologic map (Winchester, 2001). A visit to a capstone geology field camp in the late 20^th century would have revealed that field methods were still centered on paper-based mapping and data recording. In contrast, the broad availability of mobile digital devices in the early 21^st century has radically changing how we approach data collection in the field. More

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Linking Time and Space in Geology: The Sedimentary Processes of Transgression and Regression

In geology, space and time are inexorably linked (Kastens & Manduca, 2012; Manduca & Kastens, 2012). The relationship of rock layers vertically and laterally is indicative of large-scale changes in the environment. An outcrop consisting of several horizontal sedimentary rock layers represent a vertical time-series of geologic events. The textures of each sedimentary layer tells us the environment that was present at that location when the layer formed. Geologists use these textures to define the rock layer as a facies. If the environment changes, a new layer of sediment possessing a different texture will be laid on top of the existing layer. Through this process a set of facies tells us a historical record of environmental changes. More

GET-Spatial at GSA 2017