News

December 2006

With the help of Ron Blakey and his magnificent maps, Jay Austin is producing a new interactive feature on the Geologic History of Colorado. The project is being produced in conjunction with the University of Colorado's museum and will eventually be included in a kiosk in their recently renovated fossil hall. This project will also quickly port into another feature for Arches National Park detailing their stratigraphy.
Other ongoing work has Camille Dodson working on a flash game that emphasizes how difficult it is to become a fossil. Rick Couture is working with Ron Blakey's maps too, trying to animate them by morphing from one to another. Ben Haugen has assembled Landsat and SRTM data from around the world to act as modern analogues for the past landscapes of the Colorado Plateau and Chris Grey has modelled a fairly convincing brontosaur for inclusion in a time machine piece for the CU Museum kiosk project.

August 2006

Jay Austin has completed the production of "A View from Our Window, Golden through Geologic Time." DVD's are burning and will be mailed to supporters of the project in the very near future. For now a slightly lower resolution version can be found on our downloads page.
In other news, Chris has produced some very cool models of some impressive rock formations found at Arches National Park. He's created a convincing model of Delicate Arch, Balanced Rock and several other features within the park. The next step is to determine how to use them...

July 2006

IGP has undergone a period of restructuring which has seen the departure of several of the IGP Team members. John Roesink has taken a position with Nobel Energy in Denver, CO. Ryan Crow has left to find his fortune at the University of New Mexico under the tutelage of Prof. Karl Karlstrom.
Jay Austin, Paul Weimer, and Paul Bartos are putting the finishing touches on an animation for the Colorado School of Mines' Geology Museum. A version will be available for download soon.
New Projects include Flash content for Arches National Park, an animated map depicting Colorado and the American West's Geologic history, and a web based text which discusses the geology of Colorado and the West.

November 2004

- IGP memembers Ryan Crow and John Roesink will be giving talks at the 2004 GSA meeting. Ryan Crow will be presenting a talk, titled Using Computer Animation as an Informal Geology Education Tool at National Park Visitor Centers, at the "Geology for the Masses: Engaging the Public through Informal Geoscience Education in Parks, Monuments, Open Spaces, and Public Lands" topical session. John Roesink will be giving a talk, titled Lessons Learned from Creating Geologic Animations for National Parks, at the "Keys to Opportunities with the National Park Service" topical session.
Crow, R., P. Weimer, J. Roesink, J. Austin, W. Hood, W. Willet and R. Couture, 2004, Using Computer Animation as an Informal Science Education Tool at National Park Visitor Centers: 2004 Denver Annual Meeting, November 7-10, 2004.
Roesink, J., Crow, R., P. Weimer, J. Austin, W. Hood, W. Willet and R. Couture, 2004, Lessons Learned from Creating Geologic Animations for National Parks: 2004 Denver Annual Meeting, November 7-10, 2004.
-IGP is written up on the front page of Boulder's Daily Camera. The article was titled "Geologic movie speeds up time."

October 2004

- IGP is written up in a series of local newspapers, including the Denver Post, the Colorado Daily and the Campus Press.

July 2004

- Work begins on an interactive web deliverable for Canyonlands NP that will show the stratigraphy of the area, highlight the area's paleogeography, introduce the concept of a geologic map, and explain the formation of Upheaval Dome and the Needles area. A preliminary version of the display can be viewed here.
- The Interactive Geology Project teams up with the Bureau of Economic Geology to create a animation for the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The animation will serve as an introduction to the Wiess Energy Hall and detail the geologic evolution of the Gulf Coast and the formation of oil and gas.
- We are also starting work on an animation/interactive display for the Colorado School of Mines Geology Museum. The display will depict the elements of the rock cycle using local examples, as seen from the museum.

April 2004

- Abstract titled "Computer Animations in Public Outreach: Geologic Animations in Visitor Centers of National Parks" published in the APPG Annual Meeting abstract volume.
Crow, R., P. Weimer, J. Roesink, J. Austin, R. Couture, B. Boyle, W. Hood, L. Crossey, and K. Karlstrom, 2003, Computer Animations in Public Outreach: Geologic Animations in Visitor Centers of National Parks: AAPG Annual Meeting Volume, April 2004.
- The AAPG explorer publishes an article about the Interactive Geology Project, titled "Animation Brings Geology to Life."

October 2003

- Formative evaluation of an animation that shows the Geologic Evolution of Colorado National Monument completed at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and at Bear Creek Elementary School, Boulder, CO. The survey shows that 80% of respondents would be very to extremely interested in seeing a similar animated movie at a park they were visiting.

September 2003

- Abstract titled "The Virtual and Physical Trail of Time: Complimentary Approaches for Teaching Geology in National Parks" submitted to be published in the GSA abstracts with programs.
Karlstrom, K.E., L. C. Crossey, L.C., R. Crow, P. Weimer, R. J. Austin, and J. G. Roesink, 2003 The virtual and physical Trail of Time: complementary approaches for teaching geology at the National Parks: GSA Abstracts with Programs, v. 35, no. 6, September 2003, p. 364.