VR Glaciers and Glaciated Landscapes

Introduction

VR Glaciers and Glaciated Landscapes is a collection of 15 ground-level virtual field trips to locations in Switzerland, California, and the English Lake District. The high-quality immersive photography allows you to look all around and zoom in on features of interest as you travel through the landscape. It is free to access, thanks to funding provided by the Geography Department at the University of Worcester, the Quaternary Research Association, and the British Society for Geomorphology.

Why use it?

Anecdotal evidence from teachers and lecturers suggests that the topic of glaciers and glaciation is often perceived as challenging to introduce in the classroom. This is likely because relatively few students will have visited a glacier before studying them in school. As such, the topic may seem more remote and challenging than, say, rivers or coasts. Although fieldwork is the obvious solution, this may not take place until sometime later – if it all. This is where VR Glaciers and Glaciated Landscapes comes in. It instantly places learners in the field at ground level, which is more familiar than a Google Earth fly-through (although both approaches have their place).

How can it be used?

The virtual field trips can be used by students to:

• Apply and extend what they have just learned (through being instantly ‘transported’ to the field)
• Develop landform and landscape interpretation skills
• Develop spatial literacy skills (e.g. using virtual field trips alongside GIS for mapping, moving through the landscape and developing a better understanding of scale).

The virtual field trips can work well when combined with existing resources, such as Google Earth, ArcGIS, BRITICE Glacial Map, the Younger Dryas Glacial Map, Swisstopo etc.

Who is it aimed at?

Most of the virtual field trips are provided without any embedded interpretation, which means they can be used at any academic level, from primary through to postgraduate. This means teachers can develop exercises (e.g. worksheets) to suit their own requirements. An example of what is possible is provided by an editable worksheet (with answers) produced for the Moiry Glacier virtual field trip. This worksheet, which is aimed at A-level students, can be obtained by contacting the author. Additional worksheets will be developed in due course, as will a guided virtual field trip to Cwm Idwal (Snowdonia) in 2022.

What is required to view these virtual field trips?

The virtual field trips have been designed with accessibility in mind, so they can be viewed on a range of internet-connected devices with a modern browser. Although they work on phones and tablets, they are best viewed on big monitors, which creates a more immersive experience. These resources are not well suited to viewing on the current generation of VR headsets because the detailed imagery does not reproduce particularly well. There are also some compatibility issues. In due courses, these limitations and issues will be resolved.

Click the link below to access the resources