Teaching Geophysics in an Interactive, Web-based Environment
Imagine you are approached by a housing developer interested in identifying the possible extent of a hazard underlying a planned development. She explains that at the turn-of-the-century extensive subsurface coal mining was conducted in and around an area undergoing a recent housing boom. Some of these mines ventured close enough to the surface that in 1896 a mine adit was flooded, killing a dozen miners after it collapsed under a nearby stream.
She asks for your advice concerning the possibility of using geophysical methods to detect the existence underground tunnels and voids beneath the development site. After asking questions regarding the specifics of the area and the developer's needs and expectations, you suggest that a gravity survey might be the most cost-effective technique for providing the information required to continue the project safely. She invites you to prepare and submit a formal bid on the project.
A situation like this arising in our field is not difficult to imagine, particularly for those involved in environmental and engineering geophysics. Now imagine that you are eighteen, you are trying to complete your undergraduate degree in a field other than geophysics, and you are working through scenarios such as this to complete the only geophysics course required in your curriculum.
These materials incapsulate a World Wide Web-based cross-disciplinary course built on the use of hypothetical scenarios like that described above to teach the fundamentals of geophysical exploration. We use these materials to teach junior-level geologists and petroleum engineers at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM).
Client-Side Technical Requirements
These materials were created using two technlogies that place some constraints on your browser. These technologies are Cascading Style Sheets and Java Applets.
- Cascading Style Sheets -Cascading Style Sheets are a mechanism by which a web developer can centralize design aspects of the look and feel of a web site. As you navigate through this site, you may notice that all of the page URLs are identical!! I have used Cascading Style Sheets and a server side technology known as Java Server Pages to allow the content you request to be included in a single template file and formatted as you request the resource. This allows for easy updating and maintence of these materials.
The downside is that not all browsers support the client-side aspects of Cascading Style Sheets needed to make this work. If you are seeing this page, and you did not see a warning page prior to this page, then it appears to me that your browser supports Cascading Style Sheets. Specifically, these means you are using Netscape Navigator 6.0 or greater or Internet Explorer 4.0 or greater. If you don't have a browser that meets these requirements, it is time to upgrade!! You will find the behavior of this site very erratic when viewed under obsolete browsers.
- Java Applets - Interactive components of this site rely heavily on Java-based client side technologies. While Java Applets are supported by most browsers, many only support obsolete versions (Java 1) of the Java specification. I have rewritten many of the Applets used in this site using Java 2 specific components. If you are upgrading to Netscape, be sure to install the Java options. This will install a Java 2 platform for you. If you use Internet Explorer, you will need to download the Java helper application from Sun Microsystems.