Beth Pratt-Sitaula

Education and Community Engagement

UNAVCO

Beth Pratt-Sitaula is a Science Education Project Manager for UNAVCO, Research Associate at Central Washington University (CWU), and Academic Director for SIT’s Nepal: Geoscience in the Himalaya. She has extensive experience with geoscience and geohazard education. With UNAVCO she is the project manager for GEodesy Tools for Societal Issues project. With CWU, she has been a PI on Cascadia EarthScope Earthquake and Tsunami Education Program (CEETEP) and EarthScope Alaska Native Geoscience Learning Experience (ANGLE).

Project Leader, Webinar Leader, Workshop Leader, Website Contributor, Reviewer

Project Leader

EarthScope ANGLE part of EarthScope ANGLE
Through a grant from the EarthScope Program of the National Science Foundation (NSF), ANGLE offers educator professional development workshops and helps teach student academies for the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP). EarthScope ANGLE contributes to increasing Alaskan resilience to geohazards through education and the development of an action-oriented statewide learning community.

GETSI - GEodesy Tools for Societal Issues part of GETSI
The GETSI teaching materials feature geodetic data and quantitative skills applied to societally important issues (climate change, natural hazards, water resources, environmental management). These materials were ...

Website Content Contributions

Course Module (1), Activities (13), Courses (2), Essay (1), Conference Presentations (11), Other Contributions (2)

Course Module (1)

Measuring Water Resources part of Measuring Water Resources
Measuring water resources such as groundwater and snowpack is challenging, but the advent of satellite gravity measurements and hydrologic GPS applications can augment traditional methods. This module gives ...

Activities (13)

Getting started with Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry part of Cutting Edge:Enhance Your Teaching:Teaching with Online Field Experiences:Activities
Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry method uses overlapping images to create a 3D point cloud of an object or landscape. It can be applied to everything from fault scarps to landslides to topography. This ...

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Volcano Monitoring with GPS: Westdahl Volcano Alaska part of EarthScope ANGLE:Educational Materials:Activities
Learners use graphs of GPS position data to determine how the shape of Westdahl Volcano, Alaska is changing. If the flanks of a volcano swell or recede, it is a potential indication of magma movement and changing ...

Alaska GPS Analysis of Plate Tectonics and Earthquakes part of EarthScope ANGLE:Educational Materials:Activities
This activity introduces students to high precision GPS as it is used in geoscience research. Students build "gumdrop" GPS units and study data from three Alaska GPS stations from the Plate Boundary Observatory network. They learn how Alaska's south central region is "locked and loading" as the Pacific Plate pushes into North America and builds up energy that will be released in the future in other earthquakes such as the 1964 Alaska earthquake.

Taking the Pulse of Yellowstone's "Breathing" Volcano part of Structural Geology and Tectonics:Structure, Geophysics, and Tectonics 2012:Activities
In this activity, students learn about volcanism in Yellowstone National Park, focusing on its history of eruption, recent seismicity, hydrothermal events, and ground deformation. They learn how scientists monitor ...

Investigating Plate Tectonics with Google Earth part of Structural Geology and Tectonics:Structure, Geophysics, and Tectonics 2012:Activities
Students examine data sets of topography, bathymetry, volcano location, earthquake location and size, and ocean floor age in Google Earth to determine the location and attributes of different types of plate ...

Point Cloud and Raster Change Detection part of Cutting Edge:Enhance Your Teaching:Teaching with Online Field Experiences:Activities
In spring 2020, the world was hit by a pandemic that spread globally by March, causing universities and most of the world to move to remote means. Summer field camps, long hailed as a rite of passage in the ...

Introduction to Terrestrial Laser Scanning part of Cutting Edge:Enhance Your Teaching:Teaching with Online Field Experiences:Activities
In spring 2020, the world was hit by a pandemic that spread globally by March, causing universities and most of the world to move to remote means. Summer field camps, long hailed as a rite of passage in the ...

Structure from Motion for Analysis of River Characteristics part of Cutting Edge:Enhance Your Teaching:Teaching with Online Field Experiences:Activities
In spring 2020, the world was hit by a pandemic that spread globally by March, causing universities and most of the world to move to remote means. Summer field camps, long hailed as a rite of passage in the ...

Post-processing GPS/GNSS Base Station Position part of Cutting Edge:Enhance Your Teaching:Teaching with Online Field Experiences:Activities
In spring 2020, the world was hit by a pandemic that spread globally by March, causing universities and most of the world to move to remote means. Summer field camps, long hailed as a rite of passage in the ...

Ground Control Points for Structure from Motion part of Cutting Edge:Enhance Your Teaching:Teaching with Online Field Experiences:Activities
In spring 2020, the world was hit by a pandemic that spread globally by March, causing universities and most of the world to move to remote means. Summer field camps, long hailed as a rite of passage in the ...

Pictorial Geologic History Book part of Teacher Preparation:Resource Collections:Activities
In this project the student creates a 10-part written & pictorial geologic history book of a region.

Plate Tectonics: GPS Data, Boundary Zones, and Earthquake Hazards part of Project EDDIE:Teaching Materials:Modules
Students work with high precision GPS data to explore how motion near a plate boundary is distributed over a larger region than the boundary line on the map. This allows them to investigate how earthquake hazard ...

Curricular Pathways for Geohazard Learning part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2022:Program:Share-a-thon Session
The EarthScope ANGLE Curricular Pathways offer four different ways to approach learning related to geohazard topic: Instrumentation, Plate Tectonics, Earthquake Impacts, and Community Resilience. The specific ...

Courses (2)

Geoscience Field Issues Using High-Resolution Topography to Understand Earth Surface Processes part of Cutting Edge:Enhance Your Teaching:Teaching with Online Field Experiences:Courses
The objective of the course is to train students in manual and remote sensing methods of topographic data collection, including 1) GPS/GNSS surveys, 2) structure from motion (SfM), and 3) ground-based (terrestrial ...

Global Issues in the Sciences--Living with our Earth: Earth science case studies from the Pacific NW and Himalaya part of Structural Geology and Tectonics:Structure, Geophysics, and Tectonics 2012:Courses
Seminar style course that explores basic geologic systems through the lens of better understanding natural and manmade catastrophes in the Pacific Northwest and the Himalaya and how we, personally and as societies, ...

Essay (1)

From the hyper-local to global: UNAVCO's vision for sustainability in earth education part of Integrate:Workshops and Webinars:Earth Education for Sustainable Societies:Essays
Beth Bartel, Beth Pratt-Situala, Donna Charlevoix, and Shelley Olds, UNAVCO UNAVCO, a non-profit university consortium, operates the NSF's Geodetic Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (GAGE). Beth ...

Conference Presentations (11)

Integrating geodesy technology into undergraduate field education courses part of Rendezvous 2015:Program:Abstracts
Fieldwork is an integral part of the geosciences and there is a longstanding tradition of teaching field methods as part of the undergraduate earth sciences curriculum. As new technology changes the ways in which ...

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Quantitative skills in courses for geoscience majors part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2022:Program:Poster Sessions:Wednesday Poster Session
Application of quantitative skills in geoscience courses is a source of frustration for many faculty and a significant barrier to students. One response is to remove quantitative content from geoscience courses. ...

Finding the Silver Lining: Positive outcomes from the pivot to virtual for instructor professional development and teaching resources in classroom and field geoscience part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2022:Program:Oral Sessions:Thursday Oral Session B
GETSI (GEodesy Tools for Societal Issues) is an NSF-funded program that develops and disseminates data-rich and societally relevant curriculum for undergraduate field and classroom teaching ...

High Precision Positioning in Field Courses: Applying GNSS to geologic questions part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2019:Program:Poster Sessions:Wednesday
GPS/GNSS enabled consumer grade positioning devices are now super accessible to both geologic field research and education. These devices geotag images, digital field book entries or measurements but the positions ...

Context matters: Designing data-rich geodesy teaching materials that get used part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2019:Program:Poster Sessions:Wednesday
GETSI (Geodesy Tools for Societal Issues) project is developing modules that allow undergraduate students to engage in geodetic data analysis relevant to societally important topics of natural hazards, water ...

Making geodesy accessible and relevant: Educator and student resources for enhancing learning about geosciences and geodesy part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2019:Program:Poster Sessions:Wednesday
Geodesy is the study of Earth's shape, gravity field, and rotation. Geodetic applications and data are used to understand many societal issues such as land surface change, drought monitoring, climate change, ...

Data-rich societally-situated undergraduate teaching resources and instructor professional development for geoscience classrooms and field courses part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2018:Program:Poster Sessions:Wednesday
The NSF-funded GEodesy Tools for Societal Issues (GETSI) project is developing teaching resources and instructor professional development opportunities that emphasize a broad range of geodetic methods and data ...

Helping your students find their career path and options in geosciences part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2018:Program:Poster Sessions:Friday
While students often choose to study and major in geosciences because of their love of the discipline, they may not be aware of what career options are available following graduation. Perhaps even more critically, ...

Geodesy for everyone: Educational resources to incorporate geodetic data and concepts into instruction and activities part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2018:Program:Poster Sessions:Friday
Geodesy is the study of Earth's shape, gravity field, and rotation. Geodetic applications and data are used to understand many societal issues such as land surface change, drought monitoring, climate change, ...

The Role of an NSF Facility in supporting Education: Geodesy for Everyone through UNAVCO's Education & Community Engagement Program part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2017:Program:Poster Sessions:Wednesday
UNAVCO manages the NSF geodetic facility (GAGE: Geodesy Advancing Geosciences and EarthScope) which includes a focused program devoted to education, outreach, communications and geo-workforce development. The ...

Data-rich societally-relevant undergraduate teaching resources for geoscience classrooms and field courses part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2016:Program:Poster Sessions:Thursday
UNAVCO (NSF's geodetic facility) and partners are developing and disseminating undergraduate teaching resources that feature geodesy data analysis and methods in order to address gaps in available ...

Other Contributions (2)

Teaching for a Changing World: Water resources and melting ice part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2020:Program:Morning Workshops:Teaching for a Changing World: Water resources and melting ice
Integrating cutting edge data and quantitative skills into introductory courses can be challenging. The GEodesy Tools for Societal Issues (GETSI) project has developed a suite of undergraduate teaching modules to ...

Exploring Geohazard Data Portals and Related Teaching Activities part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2022:Program:Afternoon Mini-Workshops
This workshop will give participants the chance to explore a range of simple data portals related to plate tectonics and geohazards, as well as associated teaching activities. Portals will include UNAVCO GPS/GNSS ...