SedEdu: developing and testing a suite of computer-based interactive
educational activities for introductory sedimentology and stratigraphy
courses
Abstract
We have developed a suite of computer-based interactive educational
activities for introductory sedimentology and stratigraphy courses,
called SedEdu. Specifically, SedEdu is a free and open-source Python
framework through which any contributor can easily and seamlessly
integrate their own “module” into the suite for distribution. In this
way, SedEdu is a community-built tool written by sedimentology and
stratigraphy educators for sedimentology and stratigraphy educators. The
so-called modules are coupled with “activities” that guide students
through a concept, incrementally introducing components of the subject,
and testing for understanding and retention throughout the activity. For
example, one module (“rivers2stratigraphy”) illustrates the concept of
the construction of fluvial stratigraphy through a laterally migrating
river that leaves behind a channel-sand body, which is subsided into a
stratigraphic profile. The module allows students to modulate system
properties like water discharge, subsidence rate, and avulsion
timescale, and observe changes in the developed stratigraphic record. At
one point during an activity accompanying this module, students are
guided to decrease the basin subsidence rate, and then to measure (using
in-activity tools) the change in sand-body stacking patterns before and
after the subsidence change. A small-scale test was conducted, wherein
the SedEdu rivers2stratigraphy module was used as a curriculum
component. In the test, one section of an undergraduate sedimentology
and stratigraphy class was taught using traditional lecture materials,
and the other used the module on student computers. The efficacy of this
style of technology-enabled active learning was tested through a
multivariate assessment of student’s understanding of fluvial
stratigraphy construction.