Download Developing Geospatial Literacy Through Experiential Learning

to create a 3D computer-simulated model of an archaeological artifact. Such an approach utilizes experiential
learning, integrating theory with practice and promoting spatial literacy. In general, this classroom module serves
two objectives 1) introduce students to close-range remote sensing technologies and 2) facilitate the development of
spatial literacy among students. It is part of a larger effort to promote the use of GeoScience and geospatial
technologies in order to enrich student learning (Lock 2003; van der Elst et al. 2006; http://www.csiss.org/SPACE/).
CULTURAL BACKGROUND
The archaeological site of Copan, the largest
Ancient Maya center in the southeast periphery of
the Maya lowlands, is located in the Copan
Valley of Honduras about 14 km east of
Guatemala (Figure 1). Its main architectural
complex, the Principal Group (Figure 2), was the
setting for many regime-organized ritual and
political acts that served to legitimize and
reaffirm dynastic power by linking dynastic rulers
to the past and to the supernatural (Fash 2001;
Webster 2002). This civic-ceremonial center is
comprised of monuments and ancestral temples
that provide archaeological data for many
interpretations about Copan’s sociopolitical and
ideological arenas. Altar Q, located in Copan’s
West Court, which was erected by Copan’s last
dynastic ruler in AD 775 about a half-century
prior to the Maya ‘collapse’ offers an interesting
artifact to carry out a close-range photogrammetry
project (Figure 3).
Figure 1. Archaeological Site of Copan, Honduras
(adapted from Ferguson and Rohn 1990).
Figure 2. Principal Group at Copan.
Insert illustrates West Court
(Hohmann and Vogrin-Hohmann 1982).
Figure 3. Photographs of Altar Q in West Court in
Principal Group, Copan (Richards 2005).
ASPRS 2006 Annual Conference
Reno, Nevada Š May 1-5, 2006