Outdoor Rock Garden at Discovery Hall Now Features an Interactive Map 

Discovery Hall on the Central Washington University campus has been surrounded by boulders native to the region since it was built in 2016. Now, visitors to the outdoor rock garden have a new interactive map they can use to learn about what they are viewing.

With the help of Geological Sciences Professors Lisa Ely and Chris Mattinson, a group of eight first-year CWU graduate students developed the online map this spring as part of a class project.

The Discovery Hall rock garden features a variety of large boulders representing the geology of the region, such as granite, basalt, andesite, and amphibolite. Since informational signs can't be attached to each of the boulders, Ely's students created the map as a way of enhancing the visitor experience.

"For years, we have wanted to make the outside of Discovery Hall more informative for the public," Ely said of the building on the west end of campus. "Since we couldn't do much in person over the past year, we decided to work on an online project this time."

Each of the students in Ely's class adopted at least one boulder and wrote descriptions about the rocks for the online map. The students researched and wrote the content before unveiling the map to the public in late April, with help from the department's IT expert Craig Scrivner.

"We wanted to create a clean-looking map that accurately represented the locations of the boulders around Discovery Hall," said student Lindsay Henning, who took the lead on the map portion of the project. "There are a lot of people interested in Washington state geology, and we would really like to get this map out there more broadly."

Henning and her classmates, like Benjamin Deans, said they enjoyed having an opportunity to be creative while still adhering to scientific processes and principles.

"We were asked to find whatever information we could about our particular rock that would be interesting to the public," he said. "And we got free rein to do whatever we wanted. Once the project was done, you could really see everyone's creativity coming through."

Another student, Anthony Joyce, said the interactive map project gave him and others in the class a great sense of accomplishment. Now, they are eager to share their work with the world.

"I really like the finished product," Joyce said. "It's something I can look back at and know that the work will be around for a while. It's not a published piece, but I can still show other people that I contributed to an important project like this."

Ely and her students hope to see people take advantage of the new outdoor classroom this spring and summer, and they expect to see more field trips in the fall. She noted that K-12 students in the area often visit the CWU campus to see the greenhouse, the planetarium, and Snorkel the Tortoise. Now, the rock garden map gives community members another reason to stop by.

"We intend to share it with students from Ellensburg High School and the earth sciences students at the middle school," Ely said. "And the elementary kids, too. Elementary kids love rocks!"

Media contact: David Leder, Department of Public Affairs, David.Leder@cwu.edu, 509-963-1518.