“SATELLITE GEOLOGY” (GEOLOGÍA POR SATÉLITE - GPS): AUTONOMOUS FIELD GEOLOGICAL AND PALAEONTOLOGICAL LEARNING ACTIVITIES IN HUELVA (SOUTHERN SPAIN)

Mobile technologies have experienced dramatic developments in recent years generating new challenges as well as exciting opportunities to college teaching in general and to geosciences education in particular. Global Positioning System (GPS) devices are one such technology, available through progressively smaller and cheaper portable equipments as well as in consumer mobile devices, such as cell phones, and personal digital assistants. Moreover, these devices provide quick access to WWW based information and georeferenced imagery (Google Earth, etc.).

Mobile consumer GPS devices have been used to develop new teaching/learning autonomous field activities adapted to the Palaeontology course of the Geology degree of the University of Huelva (Spain). Although originally aimed at Geology undergraduate students, these activities may also involve students of other scientific and technological areas such as electronic, and geographic engineering, generating interdisciplinary connections and synergies among students of different departments within the University.

The activities are based on virtual palaeontological field trips connecting fossiliferous Pliocene sites (5-3 million years old) of Niebla and Lepe (Huelva District, S Spain), in the Guadalquivir Basin. The field trips are based on a set of predetermined relevant outcrops. The coordinates of each site are available -- downloadable -- to the students in a web page* specifically designed for these activities. Alongside with the GPS coordinates, additional information on the sites, geological background, georeferenced photos of the locations, and the tasks to be performed in the field are provided. The students, based on the geographical, geological and palaeontological information available online, design their own field trips in order to fulfil the appointed tasks and maximize their field work effectiveness.

This concept of GPS assisted palaeontological field trips, aided by online georeferenced imagery, follows the protocols of the widely available worldwide activities of virtual geocache or earthcache and is based on previous successful experiences of earthcaching activities designed for the general public** by the Geological Department of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon in the “Geology in the Summer Program”, with the support of the “Ciência Viva” Agency of Portugal.

To validate the field tasks each student must email a field report to the project’s coordinators, together with digital photos of him on the outcrops. The actual teaching/learning outcome of these activities, in addition to the evaluation of the field reports, is assessed by means of questionnaires filled by the students before and after the activities on the Geology and the Palaeontology of the study area, as well as on the methodology followed to fulfil each task.

* - http://paleoviva.fc.ul.pt/Huelvagps/ ** - http://paleoviva.fc.ul.pt/Geolgps/Geolgps01/Geolgps01.htm