GeoTEd-UAS Selects Faculty for the 2021-23 Faculty Institute Cohort
2021-23 GeoTEd-UAS Faculty Cohort Bios Coming Soon
The GeoTEd-UAS Institute is a professional development opportunity that provides training for educators in the use of geospatial technology and unmanned aircraft systems (AKA ‘drones’, sUAS). At the conclusion of the GeoTEd-UAS Institute, faculty will be better qualified to provide geospatial analysis and sUAS instruction within their primary discipline.
Fourteen community college faculty and eight high-school educators have been selected to become members of the GeoTEd-UAS faculty cohort. These 22 educators will attend the sUAS Faculty Institutes offered by the project team. The multiyear cohort model to train and mentor faculty has been used in previous projects and is based on a best-practice model in faculty professional development. The educators chosen have committed to three years of participation in the project and will attend the Institute, attend webinars and other professional development opportunities, and implement geospatial technology and sUAS into their teaching.
The NSF-ATE National Center for Autonomous Technologies (NCAT) is funding five educators to attend allow the project to expand its impact.
Eight faculty from seven different disciplines from partnering institution Germanna Community College (GCC) were selected. These faculty teach at colleges that serve high percentages of underrepresented and underserved student populations. Two high-school teachers who teach in GCC’s service region were also selected to participate. They will integrate these technologies into the classroom to support student recruitment, and to also work with GCC to build dual-enrollment courses and other partnerships.
Germanna Community College (Environmental Science, Geography, Administration of Justice, Biology (2), Biology/Geology, Cybersecurity, IT)
Northern Virginia Community College (Geography)
Central Virginia Community College (Technology and Engineering)
Laurel Ridge Community College (Computer Science, Information Systems Technology and Cybersecurity)
Virginia Highlands Community College (Horticulture)
Reynolds Community College (Engineering)
Spotsylvania High School (Engineering)
Orange County High School (Technology and Engineering)
Blacksburg High School (Robotics)
Harrisonburg High School Governor’s STEM Academy
Surry County High School (2) (Agriculture / Earth and Life Science)
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Geospatial Technician Education-Unmanned Aircraft Systems (GeoTEd-UAS) (NSF #1601614)
Faculty Institutes
2019 sUAS Faculty Institute and Service-Learning Project at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Rice Rivers Center
GeoTEd-UAS’s third sUAS Faculty Institute provided professional development to community college faculty and high school educators and was hosted by the Virginia Commonwealth University’s (VCU) Rice Rivers Center (RRC). The RRC is situated on 342 acres along the James River in Charles City and includes a 70-acre wetland restoration site and the LEED Sustainable Walter L. Rice Education Building.
This Institute enabled GeoTEd-UAS cohort members to plan and conduct real-world field operations to produce data useful to VCU’s RRC. Data were collected using a variety of sensors, e.g., true color, multispectral, near-infrared (NIR), and thermal. All missions were operated under the FAA Part 107 rules for commercial small UAS operations. Data collected was provided to RRC to use in their ongoing research.
The primary objective was to characterize the vegetation, structure, microhabitats, drainage patterns, and tidal activities of the large wetland using high resolution mapping techniques.
Other objectives included providing a baseline for the growth and spread of reintroduced subsurface vegetation and vegetative vigor on the green roof of the conference center.
Future projects and courses led by community college faculty will provide deeper analysis and interpretation of the data in support of the Center.
The final report summarizing the missions and analyzing the data can be downloaded here.
Photographs are available for download at this link.
