Providing Interactive Access to Cave Geology for All Students, Regardless of Physical Ability

Based on an identified need to accommodate students with mobility impairments in field-based instructional experiences, this presentation will discuss current efforts to promote participation, broaden diversity, and impart a historical perspective in the geosciences through the use of an interactive virtual environment. Developed through the integration of emerging simulation technologies, this prototypical virtual environment is created from LIDAR data of the Historic Tour route of Mammoth Cave National Park. The educational objectives of the simulation focus on four primary locations within the tour route that provide evidence of the hydrologic impact on the cave and karst formation. The overall objective is to provide a rich experience of a geological field-based learning for all students, regardless of their physical abilities. Employing a virtual environment that interchangeably uses two and three-dimensional representation of geoscience content, this synthetic field-based cave and karst module will provide an opportunity to assess the effectiveness in engaging the student community, and its efficacy in the curriculum when used as an alternative representation of a traditional field experience. The expected outcome is that based on the level of interactivity, the simulated environment will provide adequate pedagogical representation for content transfer without the need for physical experience in the uncontrolled field environment. Additionally, creating such an environment will impact all able-bodied students by providing supplemental resources that can both precede a traditional field experience and allow for students to re-examine a field site long after a the field experience, in both current formal and informal educational settings.