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2009 Short Courses Archive

In response to community requests and interest, UNAVCO provides an annual series of short courses focussed on UNAVCO tools and data streams. These courses are for current researchers who want to refresh their skills or explore the use of new tools, and for early career scientists such as post doctoral fellows, graduate students, and upper level undergraduates who want to learn the latest geodetic techniques.

Short Course Materials

Course Materials from previous short courses.

2009 Short Courses

GPS Course:

EarthScope Data Course:

Strainmeter Course:

Natural Hazard Course:

InSar Courses:

Laser Scanning Course:

Teacher (Grades 6 - 12), Park Ranger & Interpreter Development Courses:

  • Explore Plate Tectonics Using GPS Data

    TXESS Revolution workshop
    February 26-28, 2009
    Austin, TX


  • SCEC/EarthScope San Andreas Interpretive Workshop

    April 19-22, 2009
    San Bernardino County Museum
    Redlands, California

    Third in a series of workshops for park rangers and museum educators sponsored by the EarthScope National Office. Participants learned how to use SCEC and EarthScope data and science results, and developed and presented interpretive programs on the evolving landscape and its connections to aspects of the natural and cultural history of the San Andreas region

    More information from EarthScope's website


  • Exploring the Yellowstone Hotspot Using EarthScope Data: A One-day Workshop for Teachers

    May 12, 2009
    EarthScope National Meeting, Centre on the Grove - Boise, Idaho - Cottonwoods South Conference Room

    This workshop is designed to provide information, activities, and materials that teachers can use in their classrooms to teach Earth and physical sciences. Teachers will be shown how to use seismic and Global Positioning System (GPS) data in the classroom to enhance their students' basic understanding of abstract science concepts and develop critical thinking skills as they investigate multiple lines of evidence gathered through data from the EarthScope program. Teachers will be shown demonstrations of different types of visualizations that researchers have developed from EarthScope data that make the geophysical processes ‘come alive’ for the students. All activities are aligned with National Science Standards. Through an exploration of EarthScope learning activities as they relate to the geology and geophysics of the Snake River Plain and evolution of the Yellowstone hotspot, participants will:

    • Hear researchers describe how and why EarthScope is investigating the geophysics of the local area
    • Understand how past and present day geologic and geophysical phenomena can help us understand what could happen in the future
    • Improve participants’ foundation in basic physics concepts as applied to earth science
    • Be able to implement selected EarthScope activities in their classrooms

    Lunch provided; mileage and one night’s hotel available for non-local participants. EarthScope will work with you and your school district to pay for a substitute teacher. Registration will be provided for those local teachers who wish to attend EarthScope national meeting sessions. Funding provided by the National Science Foundation.

    Level: Limited to teachers of middle through high school Earth science and physical science.
    Instructors: IRIS and UNAVCO education staff with EarthScope research scientists


  • Teachers on the Leading Edge - July 2009 Workshop for Washington Teachers

    July 26 - July 31, 2009
    Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington
    Teachers on the Leading Edge (TOTLE) is a professional development program for Pacific Northwest teachers of Earth Science. This program features plate tectonics and geologic hazards of the Pacific Northwest. Through funding from the National Science Foundation, TOTLE is offering teacher workshops each summer from 2008 through 2010. These five-day workshops include one field day investigating Cascadia great earthquakes and tsunami geology and one field day exploring Cascade volcanic hazards. Middle school teachers of Earth Science are the primary audience for TOTLE workshops. UNAVCO staff and Master Teachers are participating as facilitators and evaluator observers at the workshop.


  • Exploring Southwest Geology and Geophysics through the EarthScope Program

    Flagstaff, AZ
    26–27 September, 2009
    Instructors: Shelley E.Olds, Education & Outreach, UNAVCO; Patrick McQuillan, IRIS; Steve Semken, Arizona State University
    Through an exploration of EarthScope learning activities as they relate to the geology and geophysics of the American Southwest, participants will:
    (1) be able to describe why EarthScope is investigating the geophysics of the Southwest, how understanding the past can help us understand the present and future & how present day geologic phenomena can help us understand the past,
    (2) improve their foundation in geophysics, and
    (3) be able to implement selected EarthScope activities in their classrooms.
    This workshop is a collaboration between UNAVCO, Arizona State University, and Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology, and is funded by the National Science Foundation through EarthScope.


  • Which Way Are We Going? A Short Presentation on Online Mapping Tools to Help Students Visualize Plate Motions with GPS Data

    Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Porland, OR
    Monday, 19 October 2009, 3:00-3:15pm
    This presentation is part of Session No. 144 - From Virtual Globes to Geoblogs: Digital Innovations in Geoscience Research, Education, and Outreach
    Oregon Convention Center, Room B117/118/119
    Shelley E.Olds, Education & Outreach, UNAVCO

    Earth's tectonic plates are constantly moving, grinding, and crumpling in an inexorably slow but measurable, dance. The temporal and spatial scales of plate tectonics and other Earth processes can be difficult to understand for many learners. High-precision GPS, LiDAR, InSAR and other modern geodetic techniques capture data over more familiar time scales and on easily visualized orders of magnitude (millimeters to centimeters per year), providing an effective means of illustrating the geomorphic effects of plate tectonics and allowing learners to visualize these processes.

    It is the visual display of GPS, LiDAR, InSAR data, however, that helps make plate tectonics come alive for learners as a process that is happening in the present. The Jules Verne Voyager (JVV) suite of interactive map tools, originally developed by UNAVCO in the late 1990’s, was created to better visualize the inter-relationships of geophysical and geologic processes, structures, and measurements including high-precision GPS velocity data. The JVV tools have been very well received by educators in introductory Earth science courses.

    More recently, UNAVCO built the Data for Educators webpage, incorporating an embedded Google Map with GPS locations and providing current GPS time series plots and downloadable data from the Plate Boundary Observatory. To extend and update the datasets available to our community, UNAVCO has been exploring new online and desktop-based technologies such as Google Maps and Google Earth which allow the inclusion of visualizations of more types of datasets, on the fly, while maintaining the self-contained, familiar, and easy to use interface of the JVV map tools.

    Concurrent to these efforts, UNAVCO is developing free, place-based, data-rich learning modules for educators and students in introductory Earth science courses at secondary and undergraduate levels. These modules integrate new scientific discoveries related to crustal deformation and explore applications of GPS, LiDAR, and InSAR techniques to research. They also provide students with case studies highlighting the process of scientific discovery. This presentation will provide an overview of our current and in-development visualization tools and how they are used in our learning modules.

    For more information and to register for the GSA Annual Meeting, visit this presentation's Web page on the GSA website.

  • Colorado Plateau-Rio Grande Rift Workshop Interpretive Workshop

    October 26-28, 2009
    New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science
    Albuquerque, AZ

    Fourth in a series of workshops for park rangers and museum educators sponsored by the EarthScope National Office. Participants learned how to use EarthScope data and science results, and developed and presented interpretive programs on the evolving landscape and its connections to aspects of the natural and cultural history of the Colorado Plateau-Rio Grande Rift region.

    More information from EarthScope's website


 

Last modified: 2019-12-24  01:25:55  America/Denver