Resource Exchange
Cape Fear Virtual Nature Trail—A Tour Using Google Earth
Submitted by: Cape Fear Community College
Contact: Steve Holman
Welcome to the virtual tour of ecosystems in southeastern, coastal North Carolina presented by the Science Department at Cape Fear Community College (CFCC), Wilmington, NC. This virtual tool may be used as a foundation to develop labs in any science course that involves Ecological processes. The CFCC Nature Trail uses Google Earth as the multimedia guide and tool in this process. To download Google Earth, go to http://www.google.com/earth/download/ge/agree.html
Once Google Earth has downloaded, you may wish to go through a quick but useful tutorial for beginners on how to navigate the tool. A tutorial can be accessed by going to http://www.google.com/earth/learn/beginner.html#navigation. After the tutorial, an instructor or student is ready to begin the CFCC Virtual Nature Trail. To access the Nature Trail, click on the link below. It will be downloaded on your computer as a kmz file.
CFCC 2010 Google Earth Virtual Nature Trail
The trail consists of tacks or points of flora and fauna one may come across in a Pecosin or coastal wetlands ecosystem. These ecosystems are common in the region of southeastern and coastal North Carolina. Each tack or point will be represented by a common and scientific name, a brief description, an image and a link to a more in-depth reference description from a virtual science library. The CFCC Virtual Nature Trail also consists of Google Earth bubbles along the roadways. You may discover how to access these bubbles using the tutorial site above. Once you are in the bubble, you can view a 360 degree panoramic of the area around you. These can be used on the CFCC Virtual Nature Trail to show landmark differences, ecosystem or habitat boundary lines, erosion areas, invasive species boundaries and more. As a student, one will be able to see specific flora and fauna expected in the described ecosystems where an image, scientific name and description can be connected. As an instructor, one will be able to create a network or series of labs that may include general flora and fauna identification, intrinsic and extrinsic factors on an ecosystem, human influences on an environment, invasive and endemic species recognition as well as a specific lab about carnivorous plants.
Please enjoy the CFCC Virtual Nature Trail and check back often for updates as the Virtual Nature Trail is constantly being improved. For lab write-ups or more descriptive ideas, please contact:
Steve Holman
Science Department Chair
Cape Fear Community College
411 N. Front St., Wilmington, NC 28401
910-362-7674, sholman@cfcc.edu
