Involving Undergraduates and K-14 Teachers in Research: Measuring and Modeling Crustal Deformation in Southern California
Abstract
With funding from the NSF OEDG, we initiated a project to: (1) involve undergraduate students and K-14 teachers to research in geology, and (2) use GPS to monitor deformation across the plate boundary zone in southern California, and to model partitioning on specific faults that account for that deformation in the upper crust. Starting in July 2002, we collected campaign-style GPS data twice a year from 13 sites along a line across the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults near CSUSB. Our field crews have included 43 students and teachers in our three campaigns to date. These include 30 undergraduate and 3 graduate students, 1 middle school and 8 high school teachers, and 1 community college professor. We are also modeling site velocities from the SCEC Crustal Deformation Velocity Map. Our preliminary results are presented in session ED14 at this meeting. Our most recent campaign (June 2003) was expanded to include workshops. As before, the field crews got one day of hands-on training in setup and operation of the geodetic-quality receivers and antennae. In addition, we held a one-day workshop before the campaign on the active tectonics of southern California, elastic rebound theory, and the scientific goals of the project. After the campaign another one-day workshop was held to plot GPS position results from previous campaigns for a station crew members had occupied during the campaign, and to estimate a velocity for that station. Participants also tried modeling SCEC site velocity data from a transect across the San Andreas, San Jacinto and Elsinore faults. Four of the co-authors on this abstract were campaign participants, and have continued to work with faculty on processing our data and on modeling SCEC data. Students (geology and other majors) felt that participation in the campaign stimulated their interest in geology, and that their participation was a worthwhile experience. Most students are interested in participating in upcoming campaigns, and would recommend the program to other students. The ethnicities of the students include: African American (including Jamaican-American) 3; Hispanic 11; Native American 1; Pacific Islander 1; Asian 1; White 16. Over half of the teachers felt that their participation in the project would very much help them to inspire students to become interested in the Earth Sciences, and all said they would recommend this program to other teachers. All of the teachers felt that their participation was a worthwhile experience, and most would like to participate again. The ethnicities of the teachers include: African American 1; Hispanic 1; Asian 1; White 7. These teachers come from schools in which 20-90% of the students are from ethnic groups that are under-represented in the geosciences. The GPS campaigns and workshops successfully involved students and teachers in active research. Almost all of the participants had a positive experience. One-dimensional modeling of geodetic data from transects across the plate boundary allows students to see how well a particular model fits the data, thus providing a good introduction to the modeling process. One student is learning to use Simplex to conduct further modeling. Another student is using Auto-GIPSY to process our GPS data. The K-14 teacher involvement is forging closer ties with their schools and their students, which we anticipate will help unveil geology as a potential career.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2003
- Bibcode:
- 2003AGUFMED11B0108F
- Keywords:
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- 6605 Education;
- 8015 Local crustal structure;
- 8107 Continental neotectonics