Field Data Collection Utilizing a Palm/GPS unit

Carol Budd
St. Lawrence University
cbudd@stlawu.edu

The package consists of a Palm 500 series handheld computer (personal digital assistant -- PDA), a Magellan GPS unit that plugs into the PDA, and freely downloadable software called Cybertracker. The software allows you to program sequences for the type of data that you wish to collect, download the program into your PDA, plug your GPS unit into your PDA (see photo), move to the field locations, and initiate data collection. The GPS coordinates for the data point are then quickly and easily collected. The student then returns to lab, downloads the data from the PDA into ArcView 3.3, and easily observes a map of their data as a layer in a theme on an aerial view of their field site.

For example, my student Josh and I were interested in mapping the flood levels of a river flowing through our campus recreational/research area. Fortunately, a faculty member had flagged flood stage. We made a simple program to collect basic elevation and hydrology data about the flagged point, loaded it onto the PDA, went to the field, stood at the flagged points, entered the data in the required fields, returned back to the lab, downloaded our data as an Excel spreadsheet, and then created a layer in a theme in ArcView 3.3 to view the flood extent on a DOQ aerial photo. We could then calculate the area of flooding. This seems pretty straightforward. However, I had never used a GPS unit, a Palm, or any of the software!

The hardware was purchased using recommendations provided by the Cybertracker web site. Most materials were available from the Palm and Magellan websites directly. We did purchase the recommended (but not required) 64 MB expansion card for the Palm. We also purchased an optional camera that plugs into the expansion slot. The resolution of the camera is 640x480 and is only useful for visual references, not quality images.

The nice thing about the Cybertracker sequences that you program is that they are icon-driven. Programming the sequence takes initial time input, but once you have programmed your first sequence, writing other sequences to input data becomes easier. The simplicity of the icon-driven input is a direct result of the software’s initial use -- to allow non-English speaking indigenous people in the Kalahari to collect life history data on endangered species. Since these people come across the organisms in their daily activities, researchers developed icon driven Palm/GPS units to assist in data collection. The Cybertracker software is currently in use around the world. In fact, Josh participated in a Cybertracker workshop at the Conservation Biology meeting in Duluth, Minnesota this past June. It is quite a slick little piece of software.

Colleagues had told me that ArcView software required a more active effort to learn. To that end, Josh and I registered for a workshop called Mapping an Ocean Sanctuary held on Santa Cruz Island off the coast of California. During the first week in August we flew to Santa Barbara, where we loaded our gear as well as that of 19 other faculty and teachers from across the U.S. onto the NOAA catamaran Shearwater. Members of the Santa Barbara NOAA office, the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary (CINMS) and The Center for Image Processing in Education (CIPE) acted as our guides around the Channel Islands and, ultimately, as our teachers once we reached the U.C. Santa Barbara Department of Natural Resources Field Station on the Nature Conservancy property on Santa Cruz. On the way, we happened to find a pod of 15 blue whales migrating through the area.

During the 4-day workshop, we navigated through the Mapping an Ocean Sanctuary – Using GIS to Study Ocean Science text currently available from the CIPE website (http://www.cipe.com/ then click on Materials). In addition, we visited the Nature Conservancy’s ranch on the site, hiked the coastline to swim in cool Pacific waters and scuba-dive, walked chaparral canyons to sparkling pools, and thoroughly enjoyed the rustic environs. Returning to the mainland and the reality of writing lab exercises for the fall semester required constitutional fortitude.

In our introductory biology course, students are currently developing their hypotheses for their independent projects. Students jumped at the opportunity to use the field data entry using the Palm/GPS/Cybertracker unit. Fortunately, Josh is my TA and is able to assist in the sequence development. Many of our project groups are interested in assisting in the data collection for a campus tree damage inventory. One sequence will work for many groups. Another group will collect data in the Adirondack Mountains krummholz zone. What started as a desire to learn one application has cascaded into a flurry of worthwhile projects for budding biologists.

A student-driven project in which both of us learned new technology, some basic computer programming skills, and how to have a great time enabled me to develop professionally in a sub-discipline outside of my area of expertise. I would highly recommend a similar project to that end. If you are at all interested in any aspect of this project, do not hesitate to contact me about particulars. It was a truly a satisfying summer experience sharing the joy of learning with a motivated young man.