The digital 'vignette' - bringing research to the classroom from Niah Cave, Sarawak
Contact details
Assoc. Prof. Michael Bird
HSSE-AG
National Institute of Education
Nanyang Technological University
1 Nanyang Walk, Singapore, 637616
Tel: +65-67903410
Fax: +65-68969135
Email: mibird@nie.edu.sg
Classification Category
- Developing student appreciation of research in the discipline.
- Development of student research skills (explicitly, in addition to other disciplinary and generic skills).
- Bringing data/findings from staff research/consultancy into the curriculum.
Context
- Course/unit/module title: CAG101 Physical Environmental Systems
- Course title: Geography BA
- 1st year undergraduate (but easily adaptable to higher levels)
What does the teacher do?
There is a perennial problem teaching field-based disciplines such as physical geography in trying to explain the 'real world' while cooped up in a classroom. This is particularly true of field techniques, which are best explained while actually in the field somewhere. Nevertheless, a basic appreciation of what is involved in applying the techniques must generally be imparted in the classroom before students are let loose to try things out for themselves. This is particularly true where field projects are (a) based on a short fieldtrip period, and (b) assessed. Under these circumstances, student performance in the field project is directly related to how well they have absorbed the classroom 'blurb' that precedes the fieldwork, that is, how rapidly they can get down to doing useful work.
The problem of course, is that field techniques taught in a classroom are not, of themselves, very interesting subject matter. To combat this I use what I've taken to calling 'digital vignettes' - each vignette is on a single 'byte-size' subject and a complete vignette includes (i) fairly amateur digital video shot at a suitable field site with explanation in the field, (ii) high resolution digital photos which enable the detail to be shown after the video, (iii) written text regarding the subject of the vignette, and (iv) where appropriate, samples collected from the same locality as appears in the video and photos. I have found this works very well to maintain student interest and helps in comprehension of complex ideas.
The only time I have linked this approach to my research so far, was where I thought I should teach the students a bit about field sketching, observation and stratigraphy before they went out to do a field project that would require these skills.
I am currently involved as geochronologist/geomorphologist with the re-excavation of the Niah Cave Archaeological site in Sarawak. This site is one of the most important in Southeast Asia as it was at Niah Cave that the 'Deep Skull' was unearthed in the 1950. This is the oldest anatomically modern human remain in the entire region, and in addition there are ~200 Holocene burials at the site. I have been involved in redating the skull by radiocarbon and it turns out it is at least 42,000 years old. I have also been involved in the stratigraphy of the 6m or so of bat guano that make up most of the deposits in the cave interior and which contain a 100,000-year record of environmental change around the cave.
There are several very nice stratigraphic sections exposed in the site that cut through the archaeology and also through the guano layers further inside the cave. So...the tutorial revolves around sketching these sections and interpreting the stratigraphy shown in digital photos from the site. The sections show both 'layer cake' stratigraphy that is easy to comprehend and also some very chaotic mudflow sediments which are more difficult for students to get their heads around. Later the students are told where the skull was found in the photos they have been sketching and where the charcoal came from that returned the 42,000-year-old dates. They are then asked to deduce the age of the skull from the information, and their understanding of the stratigraphic relationships they've drawn.
The tutorial begins with a PowerPoint presentation of pictures from around the area of the cave and a short video that starts with me talking about the deep skull and its significance (with plaster cast of skull in my hands on screen, and in fact looking on attentively). This is followed by a 'Blair-Witch' style jerky video walk along the track to the cave through forest, up into the cave, unlocking the gate to the site, and into the archaeological site itself. I don't know whether it was the skull or the cave, but the students were riveted to this clip, although I suspect they would get seasick if exposed to more than a minute or two of it.
There follows some explanation by me (in the classroom), including clearly pointing out that this was 'real research' (whatever that is) and that the students were going to be doing what the researchers had to do (i.e. interpret the stratigraphy in the cave).
Next a short video clip that I shot of august and erudite Prof. David Gilbertson (Bournemouth) explaining to the digging team at the site what he understood to be the stratigraphy and how he came to his understanding - this is filmed at the place where the deep skull was found in the aptly named 'Hell Trench' and I make sure the students realize this. Though a lot of the technicalities go way over their head, there is an excitement evident that they are witnessing the real thing, an actual, untamed geomorphologist in his natural environment, not a National Geographic re-enactment.
Following this is another clip which ends with me, in Niah Cave, telling the students they will have to draw a stratigraphic section, and showing them the section they will have to draw, again while actually at Niah Cave.
Then (back in the classroom) I show them a high-resolution digital photo of the section I have just told them (from Sarawak) that I want them to draw them and interpret. To make it easier I've overlain a grid on the photo, and I also hand out a sheet of paper that has the same grid on it and an outline of the major features in the photo. This means they just have to fill in the detail relevant to the stratigraphy and I make it clear that I'm looking for content, analysis and information not Da Vinci renditions. I also show them actual samples from the sections they can see in the photos so they can describe the sediments and incorporate the descriptions into their 'field sketches'.
After the time is up, we discuss what we can see in the photos (layers, holes
dug by long-dead humans, catastrophic mudflows of pure bat guano - that kind
of thing) and how best to interpret the stratigraphic relationships. After
this, I show them the diagrams actually published by the researchers of the
same sections and we go through a comparison of what the students thought
with what the researchers thought. The fact that 200 people were buried 5,000
years ago in the cave and that these hapless individuals are currently spending
eternity in guano seems particularly fascinating to the students.
Hot tips and things to look out for
The key in designing this kind of teaching device is to know you are going to try it before you get to the site you are going to use, rather than decide at the time to try and do it. This enables you to be prepared and to better select suitable examples for exercises and it also enables you to speak to the students 'from the field' (even issue instructions!) and this is a novelty that will keep them awake and interested. It is important also, that it be clearly explained that it is 'research' that they are looking at and not a teaching exercise conducted solely for them - showing pictures of others engaged in other tasks help to do this.
It is important to take high resolution stills, as unfortunately photographs are two dimensional and a lot is lost by not being able to go up and touch/smell what is in the photograph, although having samples from the place will help to counter this.
I also found that students did not really do well with 3-dimensional objects in photos and that it is best to deal only with the 2 dimensions available in the photo (ie flat excavated faces).
I make a large-size video of ~20Mb that runs from my computer (G4 laptop) in the class and another streaming video of 1-2Mb of the same footage that I upload to our blackboard course site that students can review - I also upload the PowerPoint.
Does it work?
No formal student assessment of this module for this year yet, and no assessment of that tutorial in particular, but from what I could see the 'entertainment value' at least was high. This interest, which I think stemmed from the fact that the students felt engaged by 'real research' translated into a lot of earnest sketching when asked to do so, some of which was bizarre to say the least, but some of which was quite good. The practice also meant that when the students had to do much the same thing 'for real' in an assessable field exercise of 3 hours duration a couple of week later, they could get down to work with the minimum procrastination.
What problems/issues have arisen?
The major problem, as with anything related to research is that the real world does not usually conform to the nice simple situations that are best to use for teaching. Ambiguity makes it difficult to tell a simple story and this makes it a bit harder on slower students, although I think it enriches the process for the smarter students. Best to stick to the simplest possible situations, at least for 1st years.
Details of support material/course work/assessment methods
I have included a copy of the PowerPoint presentation (please note that buttons used to display the movies do not work), the movies and the drawing templates given to the students, should anyone wish to use them or get a feel for the approach I've been using, so they can adapt it.
Note from Mike Sanders (webmaster) - we hope to include the drawing templates and some of the Quicktime movies here in due course.
Relevant references
The only publication so far is below, but I doubt that people can get hold of this easily. The relevant published sections are in the PowerPoint files, or contact me direct for a copy.
Barker, G., Badang, D., Barton, H., Beavitt, P., Bird, M., Daly, P., Doherty, C., Gilbertson, D., Glover, I., Hunt, C., Manser, J., McLaren, S., Paz, V., Pyatt, B., Reynolds, T., Rose, J., Rushworth, G. and Stephens, M. (2001) The Niah Cave Project: the second season of fieldwork. Sarawak Museum Journal, 56, 37-119.