Development of an environmental virtual field laboratory

Laboratory exercises, field observations and field trips are a fundamental part of many earth science and environmental science courses. Field observations and field trips can be constrained because of distance, time, expense, scale, safety, or complexity of real-world environments. Our objectives were to develop an environmental virtual field laboratory to study environmental properties and processes that stimulate the higher-order cognitive skills of students. We considered the following criteria for our virtual field laboratory: (i) global access, i.e., web-based implementation; (ii) simulation of a variety of learning mechanisms; (iii) interactivity to engage students; (iv) compartmentalization and hierarchical organizational structure; raction of 2D and 3D geographic objects (e.g. soils, terrain) and dynamic ecosystem processes (e.g. water flow) using geostatistics and scientific visualization techniques. Cognitive science was considered during the design of our computer-aided in...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2005
• Where: CE
• Authors: V. Ramasundaram, S. Grunwald, A. Mangeot, N. B. Comerford, C. M. Bliss
• Keywords: CE 2005, Environmental Virtual Field, Field Observations, Virtual Field Laboratory