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Evaluating the Impact of Animated Topographic Fly-Throughs on Students’ Geographic Novelty Space During a Geology Field Trip

Hayes, James Curtis

Abstract Details

2008, Master of Science (MS), Bowling Green State University, Geology.

This research measures the effect of viewing electronic course materials such as educational documentaries, images, and animations on students’ geographic novelty space pertaining to up-coming field stops on field trips. Specifically, the research evaluates the impact of topographic animated fly-throughs created with Google Earth Pro™ on student geographic novelty space during GeoJourney. GeoJourney is a field program at Bowling Green State University during which students embark on a 14,500 mile field trip that takes them around the United States while they learn key introductory concepts in geology, Native American studies, and environmental science. The program is nine weeks long and involved 25 undergraduate students in 2007.

This project comprised ten topographic animated fly-throughs, which are a compilation of various geologically significant field sites from Yosemite National Park, Glacier National Park, Mount St. Helens, Death Valley National Park, Badlands National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. The animations were saved as movies and placed on video iPods for viewing while traveling to the field sites on GeoJourney. A mixed method assessment, using both quantitative Novelty Space Survey data and video-taped interviews, was performed to measure the effectiveness of the animations in decreasing geographic novelty space.

Results from this study indicated a decrease in geographic novelty space. The quantitative analysis of the Novelty Space Survey results using a Repeated Measures ANOVA yielded a p-value of 0.0026 with an F-value of 11.40. The results of the video-taped interviews provided supporting evidence to the quantitative analysis portion of the study, showing that students used the animated fly-throughs to better understand the geographic context of sites before they arrived at them. Hence, the fly-throughs played a role in the overall decrease of geographic novelty space.

Margaret Yacobucci, PhD (Advisor)
Paul Cesarini, PhD (Committee Member)
Enrique Gomezdelcampo, PhD (Committee Member)
75 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Hayes, J. C. (2008). Evaluating the Impact of Animated Topographic Fly-Throughs on Students’ Geographic Novelty Space During a Geology Field Trip [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1211986178

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Hayes, James. Evaluating the Impact of Animated Topographic Fly-Throughs on Students’ Geographic Novelty Space During a Geology Field Trip. 2008. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1211986178.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Hayes, James. "Evaluating the Impact of Animated Topographic Fly-Throughs on Students’ Geographic Novelty Space During a Geology Field Trip." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1211986178

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)