VFE Template & Template Tutorials

VFE Template for PowerPoint & Keynote

Updated October 4, 2011

The text below is copied from the Assessment Tools Page.

Scroll down for tutorials on using the template.

Download or view the graphic organizers:

•Download the updated graphic organizers: The links immediately below are for just the organizers themselves. For the full template (with slightly dated organizers), select the full templates.
•The Geoscience Graphic Organizer (ppt) (png) (Prezi)
•The Ecology Graphic Organizer (ppt) (png) (Prezi

Download or view the VFE Templates:

•Download the PowerPoint file
•Download the Apple Keynote file
•See examples in Prezi:
•Mission Trails Regional Park, California (Prezi)
•Superstition Mountains, Arizona (Prezi)
•View the html file

Here’s some text from the template itself, describing its purposes and some of its limitations:

•This is a template for creating one sort of virtual fieldwork experiences (VFEs) of sites that are interesting from an Earth systems science perspective.
•It is not intended to be the only sort of VFEs, but rather might be thought of as an “entry level VFE.” The kinds of explorations learners can do in this format are real and valuable but somewhat limited.
•For more information about VFEs, see virtualfieldwork.org. Assessment materials are also available on the site.
•The pictures used in the template were taken in the Arbuckle Mountains of Oklahoma in July of 2009.
•The questions are intentionally written in such a way that they can be asked about any site.
•This is not intended as a presentation, but rather as something for learners to work through individually or in small groups. Teachers may adapt as they see fit, however.
•To use this as a template, simply replace the photos from the Arbuckles with photos from your own field site. All the arrows are hyperlinked. Click on them to go to a page with more on the question in the arrow.
•Blue boxes are hyperlinks. Links should work in all formats (html, PowerPoint and Keynote).
•Some pictures and text box are also linked. Move the cursor around the different slides to find links.
•Comments in yellow boxes are either seeking feedback on the draft or suggesting ways slides are expected be changed.

The Como Park Lake PowerPoint VFE was created using the template. The Como Lake Park Google Earth VFE uses the same set of photos but, obviously, uses Google Earth instead of PowerPoint.

The fieldwork may be virtual, but the science should still be ReaL!

•NASA scientists don’t visit the sites they study, yet make meaningful discoveries. See the Mother of All VFEs.
•Read an article about seventh graders discovering a Martian cave!

Tutorials for Customizing the VFE Template for your Fieldwork site

As we complete workshops and programs, more versions of the template will be developed and added to the VFE Database. The template-based VFEs will be identified in the VFE abstract and you may want to find one that is from a site similar to your own.

The VFE created in the tutorial is focused upon fossilized dinosaur trackways (lines of footprints) at the Heritage Museum of Texas Hill Country, near Canyon Lake, Texas. A pair of these footprints are pictured above.

If you’ve used PowerPoint very much, you may already be familiar with the content of the first segment. Here’s what’s covered in Part 1. At the end of this segment, you will:

1.have started customizing the VFE template,
2.saved it with a new name, and,
3.changed the background image on the title slide.

Here are the websites used in Part 1 of the tutorial, along with a bit of explanation about their use:

•This page! No explanation needed, I hope.
http://virtualfieldwork.org/Template
•The Virtual Fieldwork Blog. This blog is used for sharing resources including photographs, and that’s what’s used in the tutorials. It generally doesn’t have entries added on a regular basis, but as needed and especially at the time of workshops and shortly afterwards.
http://virtualfieldwork.edublogs.org/
Go directly to the dinosaur footprints here:
•Mozilla.org. The Mozilla Foundation makes and distributes the free Firefox web browser. You can use whatever browser you are comfortable with, however, many technology professionals prefer other browsers to Internet Explorer. We do too.
http://www.mozilla.org/
•The Jing Project. Jing is the software used to make the video portions of the tutorials and it can also capture images of your screen. There are several different ways you can capture screen images (see this Wikipedia article on screenshots for how to do it on different computer platforms). We chose Jing because it works on both PCs and Macs, and because the basic package is free, and because users might find the video capture capabilities worthwhile.
http://www.jingproject.com/