OpenTopography

Resources for Educators

This page provides links to resources and documents related to using lidar topography and OpenTopography in the classroom.  Also see the OpenTopography short courses archive for lidar training materials, tutorials and sample data.  If you are currently using OpenTopography in the classroom and would like to share your documents or lesson plans with the community please contact us at:

Community Developed Resources

Exercise/Resource: Building DEMs - Airborne Lidar - Exercise with video tutorials on how to download NOAA ISEMP Bridge Creek lidar point cloud data from OpenTopography, and use ArcGIS to build a terrain dataset and export to DEM.  Exercise is part of a lab devoted to DEM generation.
Author: Dr. Joe Wheaton, Utah State University
Course Name: Advanced GIS Courses in Dept. of Watershed Sciences
Level: Undergraduate - Graduate

Exercise/Resource: Processing and Use of LiDAR data - Using El Mayor-Cucapah Earthquake (4 April 2010) Rupture LiDAR Scan data
Author: Dr. David Harbor, Washington and Lee University
Course Name: Geology 260 - GIS & Remote Sensing
Level: Undergraduate

Workshop: Teaching Earth Science With High-Resolution Topography

Workshop held August 5-7, 2009 at the San Diego Supercomputer Center - workshop announcement & agenda.  This workshop builds upon the 2008 SDSC TeacherTech workshop.  Instructors: Chris Crosby (SDSC), Ken Rafanan (SRI), Sarah Robinson (ASU), Nancy Wilkins-Diehr (SDSC).  Sponsor: Teragrid Science Gateways

Presentations:
- Introduction to LiDAR Topography (.pptx)
- Slides for a discussion of using LiDAR topography in the classroom (.pptx)
- Wallace Creek Virtual Field Trip Powerpoint (.pptx) - also includes links to helpful Google Earth and Earth science teaching resources.

Handouts & Exercises:
- Wallace Creek Field Trip Student Guide (PDF) (.doc) - Includes Google Earth lidar component (uses data KMZs below) and complimentary GPS exercise.

Data:
Hillshaded 1/2 meter digital elevation models in Google Earth (kmz) format for the Wallace Creek area of the Central San Andreas fault.  Area is split into four pieces to maintain small file sizes.
- WallaceCrk1.kmz, WallaceCrk2.kmz, WallaceCrk3.kmz, WallaceCrk4.kmz