Digging the West: A Journey Through Time in the National Parks

By: Ronaldo Monroy, University of California, Berkeley and University of California Museum of Paleontology

Introduction

One of the primary drivers of science is the pursuit of knowledge and information. But this isn’t the end of science’s mission; newfound knowledge must then be conveyed to others. This includes other scientists, students, and the general public. This can become a challenge as even within these groups there is great diversity of understanding and communication. People come from different backgrounds and thus need to be reached in various ways. Science communication is a full-time job in itself, which makes this work harder because few people are both talented scientists and talented communicators. However, there are many ways to attempt to bridge these gaps between the sciences and the communities they serve. This project, “Digging the West: A Journey Through Time in the National Parks” is one such attempt.

The primary goal of this project was to make the paleontology of the National Parks more accessible to the general public with an emphasis on providing translation for Spanish-speaking communities. Many science topics can be complex and difficult to understand, especially when the information is in a language that is unfamiliar to you. There is a need for enhanced science communication efforts to extend the field of paleontology to the general public. In order to further these efforts to make paleontology accessible, various obstacles must be overcome. These obstacles, such as accessibility to education, language barriers, and even poor publication efforts, can inhibit information from spreading throughout communities. This project, part of the Paleontology in the Parks Fellowship Program between the National Park Service (NPS) and the Paleontological Society (PS), attempts to tackle these barriers and educate the public about our nation’s paleontologic resources.

“Digging the West: A Journey Through Time in the National Parks” is an educational project that utilizes ArcGIS StoryMaps to inform readers about seventeen National Parks in the Western United States. In order to focus the scope of the project, it was determined that the project would emphasize the Western United States as the project creator, Ronaldo Monroy, is from California, attends UC Berkeley, and is a student assistant in the UC Museum of Paleontology. Each park in the western region of the country was then examined and chosen or rejected based on the geologic ages it could represent as well as the presence of sufficient paleontological records.

Two versions of the StoryMap have been made, one with English text and one with Spanish text, making it accessible to a wider audience. The Spanish version is a direct translation of the English text and uses the same parks, images, and map views, ensuring the same information is provided to both English- and Spanish-speaking users. Readers are given not only information on the park's present geography but also its history, which includes fossils present and geologic time period information. The StoryMap allows users to explore the prehistoric creatures that lived in our National Parks millions of years ago by walking them through geologic time, akin to a road trip out west. The journey begins in the Precambrian, over half a billion years ago, and ends in the present. In each park readers will discover past ecosystems and paleocommunities, as well as how the geology of the region has influenced (and still influences!) the park's appearance today.

StoryMap Description

The StoryMap itself begins with an introduction to the project and as users scroll down they will see a navigation bar with all the geologic time periods listed. This provides the users a quick and easy way to navigate through the StoryMap and find which park represents their favorite geologic time period! As users continue scrolling down they will travel through time chronologically beginning 500 million years ago, and then progressing forward as they scroll downwards.

The first piece of information they will find is a description of the time period itself, which serves to orient the user in a particular period of Earth’s history. This description includes prevalent taxa such as invertebrates and vertebrates, changes in the environment, and important extinctions or the emergence of a particular group of animals. This is followed by a map of the United States with pinpoints on the location of the seventeen different National Parks that were included in this project.

Map from the StoryMap with the chosen parks pinpointed.

On the left side of this map is a description of the chosen national park. This includes information on the location of the park as well as its notable landscape, geology, and fossils that can be found there. As the users scroll past this description, the image of the United States zooms into the national park chosen for the time period being explored. This image includes the park name as well as park boundaries indicated by a shaded region. On the left of this new zoomed-in image are photographs of both the landscape and fossils from the park. Each photograph has a caption included to give the viewer context and understanding of the photo. This format and sequence of information is meant to situate the park in both time and place. Following the photographs and zoomed-in image of the park on a map is the same zoomed-in image of the park in a larger format.

Visual with landscape and fossil photographs as well as zoomed-in image of Guadalupe Mountains National Park (chosen to represent the Permian Period).

This image also has a slider feature that can be used to reveal the geology of the park and the surrounding area. Geologic formations are differentiated by color and can be interacted with. By pressing on any of the different colors a pop up will appear with information on the chosen area. This pop up includes general lithology (i.e., type of rock) and geologic age. The geologic age is provided in terms of time period with minimum and maximum ages included. The map of the park is able to be explored and users can move beyond the park and explore additional areas.

Visual showcasing the slider feature revealing the various geologic formations in Guadalupe Mountains National Park.

This structure is mirrored for each of the seventeen parks included in the project. This provides consistency for users who might be getting exposed to various national parks for the first time as well as paleontology in general. The mirrored format also allows users to utilize the StoryMap in a non chronological order. Each time period and its corresponding national park can stand alone from the other sixteen. This allows the StoryMap to function not as one long book but as a collection of short stories.

Personal Insights

Ronaldo: When I was first accepted into this fellowship I was just excited to do some translation work and be able to better converse about paleontology in Spanish. I come from a small town in central California where a large majority of the people I grew up around are Mexican, like myself. Most of my family’s first language is Spanish and while I am fluent in Spanish, paleontology always seemed disconnected from the culture I grew up in and somewhat distant. Nobody back home really knows what paleontology is and it was frustrating to become passionate about something but have no way of explaining it to those I love. This project’s motivation started as a way for me to get better at describing/explaining paleontology and as it progressed it became something different. The project developing into a StoryMap was a surprise but one that I happily accepted. My newfound motivation for this project was to make something my family could read and explore. I no longer just had the opportunity to talk to my family about paleontology, but one for them to explore the field itself. While it was a struggle to translate many of the geology terms, I found it exciting to search for this information. This led me to one of my campus libraries which interestingly enough had a Spanish to English paleontological dictionary. By connecting paleontology to the National Parks this project provides an accessible and interesting way for my family, and those like them, to learn about paleontology. I’m excited to have them explore this project and for many others in similar situations to be able to do the same. My hope is that this project can contribute to making paleontology universal and not distant to any culture.

Tags: guadalupe mountains national park, paleo, fossils, geology, parkpaleonewsseries, park paleo news, spanish language, storymaps