APPLIED LEARNING The surveying assessment continues into 2020, marking our sixteenth year of teaching surveying in an outdoor environment to College students.” However, we have reduced any damage to the theodolites by placing them on plywood triangular bases to steady them and to mark out pegs for the areas. The other key technologies are 30 metre tape measures which are also very robust and Silva compasses which place nicely upon the protractor base of the theodolite to orient it to North.
A new means of measuring angles of elevation and depression and taking compass bearings comes with the use of the iPad. A friend of mine introduced a free surveying app. I loaded it onto one iPad with a camera tripod and found it worked quite well. Working with my colleague, Pamela Stott, we further trialled this technology and incorporated it into the assessment. The app worked reasonably well, and the College’s Conde Library team graciously allowed us to use their iPads and loaded the app for us. Issues with the app included an
impact from the external temperature and some interference with compass bearing due to wireless communications across the campus. After two assessments using the app, we decided to return to simpler technology until the interference could be further investigated. ASSESSING THE TASK The biggest innovation developed in the task was using an Excel spreadsheet to assist in marking students’ papers as we were quickly about to take into account the wide variation in calculations. A former colleague, Adam Antonio, created the spreadsheet which greatly eased the stress of marking. Since this time, I have modified Adam’s document to take account the variation in calculations of differing scenarios and we have further modified the task to include smaller parts that test the skills and knowledge and yet still utilise the spreadsheet. CONCLUSION The surveying assessment continues into 2020, marking our sixteenth year of teaching surveying in an outdoor environment to College students. In recent times, we have been increasingly at the mercy of inclement weather and have relied on a wet weather plan which involves using the master measurements without an outdoor experience. We are now working towards using the Jeanette Buckham Gymnasium and spots on the floor as markers. We continue to develop the task and may improve or re-introduce previous technology to further improve the experience that this task has provided other the years.
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