Assessing the Effectiveness of Mobile GIS On Students' Ability to Identify Landforms and Predict Soil Properties in the Field.

Many concepts taught in soil science curricula are inherently spatial.  In Wisconsin-aged glacial landscapes there is a close correspondence between geomorphic features (till plains, outwash terraces, kames, etc.) and the soils formed on them. Teaching students how to recognize geomorphic features while they are in the field, and to predict soil properties such as soil parent material and drainage class, is very difficult. Many individuals may require years of field experience to become proficient. We have introduced mobile GIS as a teaching tool to increase students’ spatial abilities. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of using mobile GIS on students’ ability to visually identify landforms in the field and to predict the underlying soil parent material and soil drainage class. The assessment was conducted in 2006 and 2008 in a dual level graduate/undergraduate course at Purdue University (n=20). Students were driven along a route in Tippecanoe County, IN along which 30 sites had been selected for landscape identification. First, students were asked to identify landform features and underlying soil parent material using only a hillshade 5-m DEM on rugged PC tablets. During the second trip, students were provided with the hillshade 5-m DEM and dominant parent material map.  Results indicated significant improvement in scores when GIS was incorporated (P<0.001). Landform and dominant soil parent material identification increased by approximately 28% and 38%, respectively. The results indicate that teaching with GIS increases students’ recognition of spatial patterns at the field scale and can be effectively used in other classroom applications.