Faculty Spotlight: Professor Dorn Van Dommelen and Research Scientist Justin Fulkerson
Professor Dorn Van Dommelen leads the Department of Anthropology and Geography. He鈥檚 especially interested in how people have lived on and shaped the land over time. He also works with local communities to create maps that tell their stories.
Justin Fulkerson is a plant expert and scientist at the Alaska Center for Conservation Science (ACCS). He studies how plants grow and evolve, how they interact with pollinators like bees, and how people have used plants throughout history. He鈥檚 spent over 20 years conducting research in Alaska and beyond.
Recently, the two teamed up to teach a college-level geography class, where students used mapping technology to explore real-world environmental and cultural topics.
Van Dommelen and Fulkerson sat down with us to discuss their collaboration and the unique opportunities that it provided to the students who enrolled.
Please describe the course collaboration between the two of you with Geospatial Technology for Science? Mobile Field Data Collection? What made this course new and essential for students?
鈥淕overnment and non-government scientists have recently transitioned their data collection efforts to digital formats, which are becoming the new standard. However, as adoption is still in its early stages, Fulkerson identified a gap in knowledge regarding the correct and effective use of these new tools. To address this, Fulkerson had the idea of a Mobile Field Data Collection course to supplement GEOG A475 (an upper division geography course). While the 475 class was focused on GIS (geographic information systems), cartography, and visualization, this new course focused on the implementation and application of field data techniques so students can be better prepared for careers in environmental sciences and natural resources management.鈥�
What did students do/ why did they do it? What kind of skills did they develop in the course?
鈥淲e met every Friday, and students learned to use a field data app, called Esri鈥檚 Survey123. Survey123 is a mobile data collection app that allows you to build a survey of questions that you can attach to geolocated data. So, if you want to build a survey of the condition of, say, fire hydrants in a neighborhood, you can deploy that survey and then pinpoint all of your answers to each hydrant. The students built their own survey instrument and collected data for a final project.
The focus of the course was collecting data on the spread of the invasive 鈥渂ird cherry鈥� (Prunus padus) in Anchorage鈥檚 municipal parks. There are significant data gaps on the documented distribution of Prunus infestations in Anchorage. Students collected data with standardized methods to be added to the Alaska Exotic Plant Information Clearinghouse (AKEPIC), the statewide invasive plant database. Overall, the students significantly contributed to our scientific knowledge of a very problematic invasive species in Anchorage. Additionally, students learned how to interpret, visualize, present their project data for the general public and cartography projects in the course.鈥�
Mr. Fulkerson, what role did you play in this collaboration?
鈥淚 conceptualized the course idea and wrote a grant to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to financially support the course. I also developed teaching modules to the course outcomes and used past work experiences as examples. I was responsible for the data management of the course and integrated the data into the Alaska Exotic Plants Information Clearinghouse (AKEPIC), which I manage at ACCS.鈥�
Dr. Van Dommelen, what role did you play?
鈥淚 worked on integrating the special course into the regular GEOGRAPHY 475 class and modeled use of the app and data collection. I was learning to use the app as the students were, though I worked pretty hard to be a few steps ahead of them. For my personal project, I collected data on Anchorage鈥檚 coffee shops and made a demonstration map for students. Of course, I also built the syllabus, assessed student learning outcomes, graded and assigned grades, all of those normal instructor things that professors do in any other course. But I also got the chance to build my own skills a bit and learn from Justin Fulkerson.鈥�
Could you talk about the external support you had for the course?
鈥淭he State, Private, and Tribal Forestry organization of the USDA Forest Service eagerly supported this student learning initiative that focused on collecting data on a problematic invasive species in Anchorage鈥檚 forests. The data gathered by students directly contributed to the Forest Service鈥檚 mission, while funding from the agency covered instructional costs and data quality oversight. The Forest Service recognized the importance of career development in environmental sciences and natural resources management. The funding also provided stipends to help offset course enrollment fees for the students.鈥�
Do you envision this collaboration continuing this partnership into the future?
鈥淵es, the course is scheduled to be offered biennially in the fall semester of even years, and we are already planning to do the same thing we did this past year. The USDA Forest Service was enthusiastic about the resulting data and teaching applicable skills that ready our workforce for future opportunities.鈥�
How did this course reflect the intersection and interdisciplinary nature of the arts and sciences?
鈥淭he skills learned in both courses can be used in any of the sciences and many of the humanities as well (one of our best students was an international studies major!). While students learned rigorous scientific methods for identifying invasive species and collecting geospatial data, they also engaged with the creative process of designing intuitive, functional digital data forms and presenting their findings through maps and reports.
Effective environmental management requires not just accurate data, but the ability to convey complex spatial information in ways that are accessible and meaningful to a broad audience 鈥� a skill set that draws from both the sciences and the visual and communication arts. We live in an age when geospatial data and data, in general, are helping society to make better decisions. But, those decisions can only be good if we know how to effectively collect and use the data.鈥�
Thank you, both, for all the work you鈥檝e put into this exciting course and for facilitating such hands-on opportunities for our students.