Bruce Douglas
Geological Sciences
Indiana University-Bloomington
Project Leader
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 Modules (16)
Unit 5: Societal Implications of Climate Change: Stakeholder Report part of Understanding Our Changing Climate
Sea-level rise due to the melting of glaciers and ice sheets and ocean thermal expansion has significant societal and economic consequences. In this final unit, students prepare a summary of the impacts of sea ...
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Conference Presentations (5)
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 ...
Other Contributions (3)
Bruce Douglas: Using Analyzing High Resolution Topography with TLS and SfM in G429: Field Geology in the Rocky Mountains at Indiana University part of Analyzing High Resolution Topography with TLS and SfM
Success story in introducing geodetic methods to a field camp I first integrated TLS into Indiana University field camp in 2010. It was an experiment as we were not aware of any other undergraduate programs, including both instrument courses or summer field courses, teaching TLS at the time. As always with teaching new topics, there were some challenges in figuring out how to best engage the students and keep them actively involved in the field and how to get data and software to individuals' computers. However their overall enthusiasm for the geophysics learning and their clear progress over just a few days – moving from basic survey design to applying it to different geologic research questions – has been truly satisfying. Since then we have gradually expanded the teaching materials to include more geologic applications and have added a computer cluster to our facilities which has addressed the problems of data uploading via a server and software already loaded and available.
Bruce Douglas: Using Understanding Our Changing Climate in EAS A476 CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENCE at Indiana University-Bloomington part of Understanding Our Changing Climate
The Understanding Our Changing Climate module provided a deep plunge into sea level change, a subject matter commonly discussed with only passing details of the real societal impact. The GETSI module was used within a climate change science course that covered a traditional range of topics that provided a general framework for the module. The module was taught over a two-week interval following the mid-term exam and provided a change in the routine of the course. The material was presented by a guest faculty member as the module was not part of the normal topics included in the course. The change in classroom routine also allowed for extensive time to be dedicated to the plotting, analysis and interpretation of a range of geodetic data that provided complementary views of ice mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet.
Bruce Douglas: Using Measuring Water Resources with GPS, Gravity, and Traditional Methods in Physical Geology at Indiana University–Bloomington part of Measuring Water Resources
This module was used in an introductory physical geology course with great success despite the fact that it was designed for upper level topical courses. The success was in part a testimony to the ability of the students in the class and their excitement to learn about, and analyze, the various applications of geodetic data sets that they did not know existed. The was amplified when they understood that this data could be used for making critical societal decisions concerning water use and allocation. The students, while initially a bit timid with the use of some of the higher level functions of Excel, became adept at plotting and interpreting the large time series that comprise much of the data included in the module.
Communities
Teach the Earth
Understanding Our Changing Climate Interest Group
GETSI Community
Workshop Leader (6 workshops)
October 2022GETSI Virtual Short Course 2 Measuring Water Resources
November 2020GETSI AGU 2017 Short Course
December 2017