The Utah Geographic Alliance's Utah Gap Education Project11:08 AM 6/10/98
Background:
The final production of this CD-ROM is in and of itself a joyous event. The project was originally conceived as a GIS education project by Dr. Cliff B. Craig, professor of Geography at Utah State University and the state coordinator of the Utah Geographic Alliance. The incipient stage of the project began with a discussion in Dr. Craig’s office with Dr. Thomas Edwards, principal investigator of the Utah Gap Analysis Project. The Utah Gap Education project was originally intended to advance GIS education in Utah using ESRI Arcview software. Due to a set of events in the USU GIS/Remote Sensing Lab, compatibility conflicts with Arcview 2.0 and the problems associated with the computer requirements to utilize Arcview 2.0 in a K-12 classroom, it was decided to re-design the project for widespread use within the classrooms of Utah.
Gap Analysis:
The Utah Gap Education CD-ROM is a multimedia approach to the study of wildlife, wilderness, ecoregions, and species habitats for use in Utah’s K-12 classrooms. The framework for the production of the CD-ROM was derived from the Utah Gap Analysis Project, based on maps generated from geographic information systems Analysis using ArcInfo software developed by the ESRI company. The Utah Gap Analysis research is a proactive approach to protecting biodiversity within Utah. It was developed by Dr. Michael Scott of the U.S. Biological Survey and has since been integrated into all fifty states. The Endangered Species Act was one approach by the U.S. Government to protect select ecosystems for maintaining some semblance biodiversity. It is felt, however, that biodiversity is the key to the survival of a species. As a result, the Gap Analysis program was instituted as a method of evaluating biodiversity protection in large area ecoregions. the final version of the Utah Gap Education CD-ROM is developed within the framework of the Utah Gap Analysis Project which includes wildlife, wilderness, species habitats, and ecoregions of Utah. The final re-design of the Utah Gap Education Project created a multi-media production driven by an authoring software called Hyperstudio.
Acknowledgments:
The content of the CD-ROM is a combination of text, images, movies, and maps integrated into a single program by a team directed by myself, Dr. Cliff B. Craig, with Jason Merrill as the project manager, chief graphic, framework and interface designer, programmer, and researcher. Mike Harper helped as overall Alliance project manager and consultant. The team members also included wilderness specialist and teacher consultant Jack Green, teacher consultant Kathleen Cottle, Gap Analysis research associate Scott Bassett, researchers Paul Morgan and Roger Perkins, production assistants James Willits, Tara Shurtz, Greg Christiansen, Tracy Woolstenhulme, and Brent Knapp.
While I originated and directed the overall project, Jason Merrill must be given the majority of the credit for the actual management and “nuts and bolts” development of the CD-ROM project. Jason has spent months, day and night in my office developing, creating, designing, building, programming and finalizing this project. Without the persistent and dedicated help of Michael Harper, who coordinates all the CD-ROM projects by the Alliance, this project would have been greatly lengthened. Nearly two years have elapsed from the incipient beginning. Jason and Mike at times spent four hours in my office where the actual development took place. I must thank Jack Green, a religious advocate of protecting the environment. There is only one Jack Green and his educational and professional contributions on the wilderness and wildlife components of the project were central to the design aimed at Utah’s teachers.
Without the multitude of hours spent by Brent Knapp scanning images in Utah State University's UR Graphics Lab, the project would have lengthened another year as we waited for our own slide scanner. A very appreciative heart to Tara Shurtz, Greg Christiansen and Tracy Woolstenhulme for their dedicated word-processing, editing and formatting of the text. A big thanks to James Willits, a very special individual who created his own production on Sweden and then got caught in the excitement of the project. James was involved in the closing stages when an individual of his work ethic was needed to polish, edit, program, and finalize the project. Paul Morgan and Roger Perkins were instrumental with Jason in developing and researching a good share of the text utilized in the project.
Scott Bassett was especially helpful in personally compiling the Gap Analysis potential species range maps. A thank you to Collin Homer from the USU RS/GIS lab who provided special assistance in the project and cooperation in dividing Jason’s time to ensure completion.
A special thanks goes to Dr. Joseph Chapman, Dean of the College of Natural Resources and to Dr. Allan Falconer, Head of the Department of Geography and Earth Resources for their continued support of geography education and the Utah Geographic Alliance in particular.
Beyond the total contribution of Jason Merrill to the project, the one individual who has helped more to all the of the Alliance projects with her dedication, insight, love and total support is the Alliance's Administrative Assistant, Shauna Dean Craig.
--Dr. Cliff B. Craig June, 1996
The Alliance would also like to thank consultants Nathan Smith of Utah State University's Educational Resource Technology Center in the College of Education, Shaun Swaner of USU's Biology Department, Darcy Neff, Terry Messmer and Thomas Edwards of the College of Natural Resources. Also a thank you to the image contributors Gar Workman, Terry Messmer, Breck Bartholemew, Mark Brunson, Jack Green, Bryce Humphreys, Mirian Jacklin, Becky Mortensen, Sarah Springer, Nick Sandberg, Dan Vice, Doug Wight and the College of Natural Resources' Quinney Library.
Also, a note of appreciation to several hardware and software companies for their wonderful products and support: Adobe Systems (Photoshop 3.0.5, Illustrator 6.0, Premiere 4.2, Type Manager, Gallery Effects), Roger Wagner Publishing (Hyperstudio 3.0), Video Fusion Inc. (Fusion Recorder 1.1), Macromedia (Sound Edit 16, 1.0.1), Novell (Wordperfect 6.1), Microsoft (Word 6.0, Windows 3.1), Nisus (Nisus Writer), Thorsten Lemke (Graphic Converter 2.2.2) Environmental Systems Research Institute (Arcview 2.1), Aaron Giles (Jpeg View 3.3), Astarte (Toast CD-ROM Pro 3.0), Metatools (Kai's Power Tools, 2.0, 3.0), The Black Box (Alien Skin), Insignia Solutions (SoftWindows 2.0), Hammer (Hammer Drives), Nikon (Nikon Scanner and Aquire software) Netscape (Navigator 2.0), and last but certainly not least, Apple Computers (Macintosh Operating System 7.5.2, and all our great Power PCs!).
