Climate Analysis and Geographical Pedagogy in the Mountainous Southwestern United States

The southwestern United States is an ecologically, climatologically, and topographically diverse geographical region. As a result, it has been difficult to develop accurate assessments and instructional pedagogy for defining and demonstrating climate sensitivity and change at a more local level. To address this problem, this dissertation is divided into two distinct sections involving climate data collection/analysis and geography education using interactive geovisualization video games (iGEOs). The first two papers analyze new climate observations in Joshua Tree National Park. The first paper examines the variability in accuracy of climate reanalysis and interpolation methods compared to field observations in Joshua Tree National Park and the Tucson Metropolitan Area. This study found that other than PRISM interpolation data, reanalysis techniques performed better in a region with a more extensive climate network. The second paper developed a climate regionalization zone separating the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts within Joshua Tree National Park using principal component analysis. This study used monthly temperature and precipitation observations, as well as seasonal climate trends. The final two papers describe and analyze the implementation of virtual interactive geovisualization video games (iGEOs) used to instruct geographical concepts in an introductory physical geography course at Arizona State University. The first paper examines the preliminary implementation of an iGEO in the San Francisco Peaks of northern Arizona, identifying student support for the games, but with caveats related to the technical shortcomings of the game design, and noticeable differences based on academic major. The second paper examines the changing experiences and challenges encountered by both students and instructors in an iGEO centered introductory geography course during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study found that, while students were impacted by the pandemic, all student groups had sufficient extensive and intensive learning materials to ensure a positive and successful lab experience. Overall, the significance of these four papers demonstrates that new applications of climate observations and geography pedagogy can effectively describe local climate sensitivity and instruct geographic concepts in the mountainous Southwest.