Here are the questions I will be answering for each activity:
1. Prior to this activity, how would you rank yourself in knowledge about the topic? (1-No Knowledge at all, 2-Very Little Knowledge, 3-Some knowledge, 4-A good amount of knowledge, 5-I knew all about this)
2. Following this activity, how would you rate the amount of knowledge you have on the topic? (1- I don’t really know enough to talk about the topic, 2- I know enough to explain what I did, 3-I know enough to repeat what I did, 4-I know enough to teach someone else, 5- I am an expert)
3. Did the hands-on approach to this activity add to how much you were able to learn? (1-Strongly Disagree, 2-Disagree, 3-No real opinion, 4-Agree, 5-Strongly Agree)
4. What types of learning strategies would you recommend to make the activity even better?
Field Activity 1: Surveying a Surface Terrain
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2. 4
3. 4
4. This activity went pretty well, I feel like it is a decent representation of how to begin thinking about surveying an actual terrain. Maybe in the future if we could see real world examples, it could help the class better relate this to actual applications more.
Field Activity 2: Visualizing and Refining a Terrain Survey
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2. 4
3. 5
4. Making us perform multiple methods to visualize the surface and explain them helped me learn a lot. I relied heavily on ArcHelp, which was okay, though it would've been nice to have a little bit more of a brief background on the various ways to visualize a 3D surface.
Field Activity 3: UAV Systems Research and Advising
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2. 4
3. 4
4. This activity required an extremely extensive amount of research. Going into the activity I only knew about 5% of what I know now. Every single solution required different approaches. It may be helpful to give a place to start for each scenario because at the beginning of some of the scenarios I had no idea how to solve the problem. However, after researching each topic for awhile I was able to figure it out.
Field Activity 4: Distance Azimuth Survey
1. 1
2. 4
3. 5
4. The hands-on, learn how to roll without technology approach was great. I feel it helped me learn a lot. Though I feel like it could be even better were students required to survey a portion (say 50%) of the features using the compass and the distance finder, or even require them to use a surveyor tape measure as I mentioned in the blog. I feel like this would further prepare students to perform surveying if technology fails, and still teach them how to use technology (ArcGIS, TruPulse) at the same time. Also it'd be interesting to require a base point GPS location to be taken along with using the base map to find it. I wish I would've done this anyway as it would've been interesting to see how big of a difference there was with any. In fact, if I get some spare time, I'm going to go out and GPS my group's base point myself and see how it compares to the found amount using the base map. I feel this was the most entertaining, educational activity yet (maybe, in part, due to the fact that it was insanely nice out during the surveying).
Field Activity 5: Development of a Field Navigation Map:
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2. 3
3. 5
4. Having Al Wiberg come in and teach us was great. I'm interested in getting out there and trying this method of navigation and I really hope my map helps me out. I want to test it out.
Field Activity 6: Microclimate Geodatabase Construction for ArcPad
1. 4
2. 4
3. 4
4. I feel like we learned this in GIS I, though it is good to go through it again, particularly I felt that it was good that it was reaffirmed over and over how important this is. I will for sure create geodatabases beforehand like this and set domains in the future.
Field Activity 7: Introduction to Unmanned Aerial Systems
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2. 3
3. 3
4. Getting to see everything in action was cool, though I feel like I didn't learn much compared to previous weeks. I feel like a lot of people were relegated to watching, though that may have been the classes and my fault.
Field Activity 8: Gathering Data Using ArcPad and Development of Microclimate Maps
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2. 4
3. 5
4. This activity was great in teaching many different things. Overall, the errors are what taught a lot. It would've been good to organize beforehand exactly where to gather data, such as plotting points beforehand on a map.
1. 1
2. 3
3. 5
4. Having Al Wiberg come in and teach us was great. I'm interested in getting out there and trying this method of navigation and I really hope my map helps me out. I want to test it out.
Field Activity 6: Microclimate Geodatabase Construction for ArcPad
1. 4
2. 4
3. 4
4. I feel like we learned this in GIS I, though it is good to go through it again, particularly I felt that it was good that it was reaffirmed over and over how important this is. I will for sure create geodatabases beforehand like this and set domains in the future.
Field Activity 7: Introduction to Unmanned Aerial Systems
1. 2
2. 3
3. 3
4. Getting to see everything in action was cool, though I feel like I didn't learn much compared to previous weeks. I feel like a lot of people were relegated to watching, though that may have been the classes and my fault.
Field Activity 8: Gathering Data Using ArcPad and Development of Microclimate Maps
1. 2
2. 4
3. 5
4. This activity was great in teaching many different things. Overall, the errors are what taught a lot. It would've been good to organize beforehand exactly where to gather data, such as plotting points beforehand on a map.
Field Activity 9: Surveying with a Total Station
1. 2
2. 4
3. 5
4. Being able to set up the total station and prepare it using the GPS was great for learning the processes of total station surveying. I'm extremely confident in my ability to do this again multiple times in more challenging areas due to this field activity and the preparation for it.
Field Activity 10: Field Navigation using Orienteering Methods
1. 3
2. 4
3. 5
4. This activity was a great opportunity for the class to get out in the field and put together a lot of what they've learnt. It was a shame that it had to be so long after the orienteering lesson though this didn't seem to cause any major problems as the review was nice.
Field Activity 11: Field Navigation using a GPS
1. 4
2. 4
3. 5
4. The amount of freedom granted in this activity is what made it great I feel. We were free to use whatever skills we'd garnered in the class to navigate the course. Incorporating the paintball guns was a really good time and built camaraderie among the class which is always nice. The activity was a good review, educational, and fun.
1. 2
2. 4
3. 5
4. Being able to set up the total station and prepare it using the GPS was great for learning the processes of total station surveying. I'm extremely confident in my ability to do this again multiple times in more challenging areas due to this field activity and the preparation for it.
Field Activity 10: Field Navigation using Orienteering Methods
1. 3
2. 4
3. 5
4. This activity was a great opportunity for the class to get out in the field and put together a lot of what they've learnt. It was a shame that it had to be so long after the orienteering lesson though this didn't seem to cause any major problems as the review was nice.
Field Activity 11: Field Navigation using a GPS
1. 4
2. 4
3. 5
4. The amount of freedom granted in this activity is what made it great I feel. We were free to use whatever skills we'd garnered in the class to navigate the course. Incorporating the paintball guns was a really good time and built camaraderie among the class which is always nice. The activity was a good review, educational, and fun.
Field Activity 12: Working with UAS Imager
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2. 3
3. 4
4. I wish I would've been one of the people helping set up the balloon as this likely would have helped me learn exponentially more. It'd be nice if everybody were required to do this, though it's my fault I didn't volunteer. Also it was good to learn that the big scary software to create image mosaics isn't actually all that scary at all; it's rather automated and user friendly as long as the images are of a decent quality. It was good we were required to use it as now I feel more confident and interested in using UAS in the future to gather imagery.
Overall Course Impression:
This course was an excellent way to teach geographers at UWEC how to apply many skills learnt in other courses and teach new skills as well. The skills I learnt such as how to survey an area using a total station or distance-azimuth techniques will be invaluable as I look for a job or internship in areas that may require me to perform these tasks as field work is important in industries and research alike. At first I was nervous to take this class as I wasn't sure how to perform any of these tasks, yet now I feel an air of confidence as I can likely perform most field work that will be required of me at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire or in future entrance level jobs.
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