Traveling Through a Million Years

Ellen Barnett, Ph.D., Matthew Hibbs, Ph.D., and Heather Haynes Smith ’97, M’98, Ph.D., have dug deeper into what interdisciplinary learning at Trinity University truly means. In recent years, their proactive response to one student’s access and inclusion for a field trip led to the creation of a digital tool that will maximize learning for all people across South Texas.

It all started in 2018 when Barnett was instructing GNED 1342, “Connected Science: Change over Time.” In the course, students interested in becoming K-12 science teachers learn foundational concepts in geology and biology and how Earth and life change over time.

“At the midpoint in the semester, we take a tour of the Canyon Lake Gorge,” says Barnett, associate professor of education. “There is a beautiful lake. There's a dam there, but in 2002 the dam broke after a flood event, and it washed away the hillside. The result is that it revealed Cretaceous history. You can now take a tour of the Gorge and travel backward in time.”

That semester, one student in her class had a temporary access issue due to physical injury, and it got Barnett thinking about just how difficult it can be to visit the Gorge.“It is a three-hour hike. It involves being on your feet. It also involves missing classes, taking a drive an hour or so away from campus.”

Students on the Spring 2023 trip to Canyon Lake Gorge observe fossils while listening to the tour guide.

The Gorge trip presents both immense opportunities and challenges for all learners, both at Trinity and in the greater public. Barnett talked to her colleague, associate professor of education Heather Haynes Smith, about what intentional inclusion could mean in this course. “Disability is a piece of diversity that is important to us at Trinity,” says Smith, whose expertise is in inclusive pedagogy and systems of support in educational settings. “Knowing that class in 2018, the question that I posed to Ellen (Barnett) was what opportunities are there to make this content accessible to all students for years to come?” 

Thus, they set out determined to find new methods to teach the content and use the course as a model for broader inclusion in science education.

The idea of creating a virtual reality (VR) tour was first circulated by a student in the class, Samantha (Sam) Ortiz ’19. Ortiz was simultaneously enrolled in associate computer science professor Matthew Hibbs’ game development class, where students build video games in which the player uses a headset to freely navigate through a virtual world. 

“I thought about how inaccessible nature can be and wondered about how we could create an inclusive tool,” Ortiz explains. “Dr. Hibbs and Dr. Barnett were very excited about the idea of having a VR tour that anyone could have access to, and we went to work!” 

Hibbs says that Ortiz was the one to hook him on this project. “She came to my door one day and said, ‘Hey, I've got this idea for a project for this other class. Could you give me some guidance?” He remembers. 

Once the team secured the funds for a 360-degree fisheye lens camera, they went to work filming a guided tour of the Gorge hosted by volunteer guides with the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority in Canyon Lake, Texas.

“It was breathtaking,” Ortiz says. “The tour guide was so knowledgeable and became more comfortable with the camera as we kept filming.” Back on campus, Ortiz downloaded the videos into the drive and got to work coding the VR experience with a Merge VR headset. “It's a mobile VR headset, which I really liked because it added to the accessibility of being able to do the tour from anywhere,” she says.

Sam Ortiz ’19 shot the footage for the VR tour with just a 360 camera and a tripod.

Ortiz treated the initial drafts of the simulation as what it was—a school project. “I had no idea it would go further than that,” she says, laughing. 

As amazing as it was to put on the goggles and watch the tour with a guided voiceover, Hibbs saw the immense potential in the initial programming. “I started with what Sam had done and built off there and did a little bit of polishing.” With each edit, their shared vision came into focus. “Throughout this process, I realized that this is maybe something that the Gorge could utilize, too. It did not have to be just for our students. It's something that they could use for advertising, or fundraising, or a variety of educational purposes,” he says.

The professors reached out to Jaynellen Kerr, former natural resource specialist at the Gorge, for her input. Kerr managed the Gorge, park staff, and the volunteers that provide tours and maintain the park for the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority. When presented with the idea, Kerr did not hesitate. “We jumped on board. We want the Gorge to be accessible to all,” she says. Kerr and her team have also made efforts to improve accessibility and have secured a grant from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for adding new hiking trails and making trail lookouts more accessible.

Matthew Hibbs, Ph.D. (left), and Ellen Barnett, Ph.D. (back right), collaborated with Jaynellen Kerr, former natural resource specialist at the Canyon Lake Gorge, to finalize the VR tour.

Hibbs continued to make tweaks to the software, eventually turning the YouTube tour into a separate app and improving the user interface. “Now you don't have to take off the headset and mess with your phone. You can select what you want to see right within the app itself,” he explains. Incorporating suggestions from students and Kerr, closed captioning in multiple languages was also added to the simulation. The goal is for the app to be added to the App Store and Google Play Store soon. 

Kerr was invited to Trinity’s campus to test out the simulation. “It was just like being there,” she remembers. “You were in the moment, and you felt like you were standing on the edge of the cliff. It’s waterfalls, pools of water, and fossils and dinosaur tracks from about 110 million years ago—you get to see all of that.”

Heather Haynes Smith ’97, M’98, Ph.D. (center), and Mathew Hibbs, Ph.D. (right), smile as Jaynellen Kerr tests out the VR goggles for the first time.

The team’s aim is for the VR tour to become a permanent resource of the Canyon Lake Gorge Visitor Center. Kerr has countless examples of people who could benefit from the simulation. “We have about 4,000 fifth graders visit the Gorge each year, and there is always a handful who are unable to get down into the Gorge with their classmates. So this would be a massive resource for them as well as elderly visitors who come to the Gorge with their families.” 

When COVID-19 forced classes to go remote in 2020, the simulation proved to be an invaluable asset. “We were able to send goggles to every student, and it was awesome they could still have this really important learning experience in the course,” Barnett says. “I worked with my colleagues, and we designed a survey instrument to understand students' experience with VR. They took the survey pre- and post-simulation, and we applied an experiential framework to understand their responses.”

Students in Barnett’s GNED 1342 can now choose between visiting the Gorge in person or virtually.

Now in 2023, students in GNED 1342 have the option to go through the experience in real life (IRL) or through VR. “I am not dictating to them which group they must participate in,” Barnett says. “They have the choice, and that was important to us. We had about half and half—about half chose VR this semester, and about half chose IRL.”

Currently, they are writing a manuscript, but Smith emphasizes that the project is not final; data collection is still ongoing. “The process is iterative and has been refined with each phase. Incorporating student feedback from the surveys adds an important disability cultural piece to this project,” she explains. “I would use the word autonomy. Universal design is often called choice and voice. We don't want to make assumptions on behalf of our students or future viewers. We want to create a tool that really does increase inclusion and access on all levels.”

When asked about the impact of the work, Smith explains this project is about more than an inclusive educational tool. “It's about inter-interdisciplinary work and collaboration. I mean, it's about research, student research, service learning, and experiential learning—it’s so meta, right?” she says, laughing. “This has helped push all of our thinking.” 

Barnett chimed in, “It has made an impact on our students. It has made an impact on us. Trinity is a special place where you get to do a project like this and work across fields.” A highlight for Barnett was working with Kerr and the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority. “They’ve been very much a part of this larger conversation that we're having about how to build inclusive experiences. It's been all joy,” she says.

Kerr expresses her sincerest gratitude to Trinity University: “It’s incredible what they have done as a school—and to share this with our organization and help out all the people who will be coming to the Gorge in the future means a lot.”

Everyone hopes that this tool, like the Gorge, evolves and changes with time, welcoming learners for many years to come.