Investigations and GIS in Schools and Communities

An origin list for teachers, by Beverly Hunter for Project VISIT

Updated October 2, 2002

This document provides links to 3 kinds of sources that teachers may use to discover and conduct educational investigations which use geospatial data and GIS tools: You are invited to make a copy of the list on your pc for a continuing reference inside your work.

1. Internet sites that offer support for educational investigations, e.g. online data, interactive visualization and mapping tools, connections with individuals, venue for publishing students’ work, along with other types of support.
2. Articles about investigations and GIS in schools, including investigations produced by VISIT teacher leaders as well as their students.
3. Ecological science curricula that contain some utilization of GIS tools, by David Wicks.

I. Internet Sites Supplying Online Support for Educational Investigations

Pathfinder Science (formerly known as KANCRN Collaborative Research Network )

Thornton Creek Project

II. Articles About GIS Investigations and GIS in Schools

A. Research Reports and Articles on GIS in Education

Data Tools legitimate-World Learning within the ISTE journal – Leading and Learning with Technology, Beverly Hunter, world wide web.piedmontresearch.org/bib/ISTE.html

B. Reports on and Types of School and Community Projects Using GIS

Environmental Classification by Bob Saxton, a trip Teacher Leader

DetroitCassTech by Randy Raymond, a trip Teacher Leader

Senior High School Students’ Analysis of Radon within the Friuli-Venezia Region of Italia A good example of Project-Based Learning

Inventorying Urban Trees

Understanding Ground-Level Ozone
Using GIS and ArcView Image Analysis

IV. Ecological Science Curricula Which Use GIS Tools

Ecological Education and Geographic Human Resources:

An Annotated Bibliography of Curriculum Fall 2002

by David Wicks and Anita Palmer

The next introduction and list was published by David Wicks and Anita Palmer. It offers some of the internet sites which are also indexed by section I above within this VISIT resource list.

Ecological Education (EE) is all about exploring ecological problems as well as their solutions. Ecological troubles are complex as well as their solutions require understanding scientific historic, political, economic and cultural perspectives. Ecological Education develops of the personal feeling of place and knowledge of how objects and occasions are linked to it. Within the EE tool box (Defining Ecological Education, one within the EE Toolbox) the next assumptions are created about EE

• EE rests on the first step toward understanding about social and environmental systems.
• Understanding lays the research for analyzing ecological problems, resolving conflicts, and stopping new problems from arising.
• EE includes the affective domain: attitudes, values, and commitments essential to develop a sustainable society.

Geographic Human Resources (GIS) is really a complex computerized mapping, database and graphic software program that visualizes layers of spatial data. The consumer manipulates the hardware, which engages the program, to operate around the data. Together, they handle

• Computerizing of knowledge (data entry, through either digitizing, checking, keyboard entry, or bandwith)
• Data selection and query (information processing through database manipulation and advanced math analysis functions)
• Data display (map creation through drawing capacity)

You will find an increasing number of EE curricula which utilizes GIS being an integral theme or perhaps an analysis tool.

Within this bibliography we searched for EE curricula which were easily replicable and available. We incorporated programs which were regional in focus, and is relevant to ecological educators over the U.S. We centered on programs that used GIS like a tool to understand more about specific content areas and thru on the job use students would understand and then make the most of GIS. If you want to examine additional standalone activities and units, ESRI maintains an incredible database of attempted and true activities, visit the website. world wide web.esri.com/arclessons.

This bibliography is really a beginning point. The authors understand that things might have been ended, knowing of 1, please forward the specific program and phone information towards the authors. Basically we have reviewed all of the packets incorporated, but we’re not endorsing the standard nor all the details and operations in every packet.

Dr. David Wicks Anita M. Palmer
JCPS Center for EE GIS Etc

Gheens Academy Educational Technology Consultants
4425 Preston Highway 1409 S. Lamar #438
Louisville, KY 40213 Dallas, Texas 75287
(502) 485-3295 214) 485-3819
dwicks1@jefferson.k12.ky.us gisetc@america online.com

The City Mapping Program supports students, educators and community organization representatives inside a procedure for discovery and learning. Students use community groups, using hands-on sources, including geographic human resources (GIS) and gps systems (Gps navigation), to positively investigate social, economic and environmental systems, identify and solve local problems, and develop long lasting connections. Displays, brochures, wall maps, data bases and webpages are some of the products produced with this community mapping try to assist the public understand much more about their current address

For any more complex version, people may want to try the Orton Foundation program known as Community Viz.

CITYgreen is really a effective GIS application for land-use planning and policy-making. The program conducts complex record analyses of ecosystem services and helps to create easy-to-understand maps and reports. CITYgreen calculates dollar benefits according to your particular site conditions.

CITYgreen analyzes, Storm water Runoff, Quality Of Air, Summer time Energy Savings, Carbon Storage and Avoidance and Tree Growth. With CITYgreen, you can engage in natural systems to create the utmost economic benefits for the growing community. CITYgreen uses probably the most up-to-date research to calculate the dollar worth of trees and plant life

DataScape® is definitely an ArcView GIS® version 3 application that you can use along with courses in the school and faculty levels, including geography, world studies, ecological studies, ecosystem, biology, financial aspects, and math.

DataScape was created like a tool for inquiry. It enables students of all ages look around the landscape of ecological, social, and economic data within their world and also to begin using these data to formulate questions that might have immediate solutions. In making use of DataScape students also develop crucial skills for 20-first century people looking for work and citizens for example analytical thinking, information literacy, and spatial analysis.

CalSpace at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD

Earthguide is definitely an educational resource in Earth and Ecological science for students and teachers, backed through the California Space Institute at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Exploring Earthquakes wide and Time Online along with a GIS:

This module contains a workout by which students are requested to look at the regularity and distribution of earthquake epicenters and compare these epicenters towards the distribution of plate limitations and metropolitan areas. Students download earthquake epicenters during the last a few days and for a whole year from the web, and map the data using ArcView geographic information system (GIS), and evaluate the patterns that become apparent.

GEODESY is really a comprehensive and integrated use of remote sensing and geographic human resources for K-12 schools. Its objective would be to boost the relationship between computer literacy and geographic awareness, allowing students to widen their vision from the Earth’s inter-related systems by using digital geographic data.

Students and teachers using GEODESY learn how to interpret and evaluate geographic details about their neighborhood. This program is embedded inside a graphical-interface that organizes and presents geographic tools and knowledge inside the construct from the National Geography for Existence Standards. Students is going to be empowered to reply to relevant questions regarding WHERE they’re, WHY they’re there, and How they may enhance the caliber of existence of the community, and eventually, within our world.

GLOBE is really a worldwide hands-on, primary and school-based science and education program.

For College Students, GLOBE offers the chance to understand by:

Taking scientifically valid measurements within the fields of atmosphere, hydrology, soils, and land cover/phenology – based upon their local curricula

Reporting their data online towards the student data archive

Creating maps and graphs around the free interactive How do people evaluate data sets

Collaborating with scientists along with other GLOBE students all over the world

GLOBE provides assistance through: Training at professional development workshops, Teacher’s guides, “how-to” videos, along with a help-desk.

The GLIN Information Center delivers Great Ponds news, a regional occasions calendar, a laws and regulations and policy reference guide, and links to current job possibilities and funding sources. Educate Great Ponds features small-training on the majority of Great Ponds topics: atmosphere, history culture, geography, pollution and careers business. Geared for elementary through students, the modules are constantly expanded and updated and can include links to some reference to assist explain scientific terms and acronyms. This website has four major parts: GIS Datasets, Online Mapping, Map Gallery, and Sources. Users can look for datasets by subject, geographic regions, organizations, or in the GLIN Data Access (GLINDA) Clearinghouse.

The JASON Project is really a multi-disciplinary program that sparks the imagination of scholars and improves the classroom experience. From oceans to rainforests, from polar regions to volcanoes, the JASON Project explores The World and exposes students to leading scientists who use these to examine its biological and geological development.

In the depths of dark oceans towards the heights of wet rainforests, from icy Polar Regions to red-hot volcanoes, the JASON Project travels the planet, taking students and teachers with an exciting educational adventure. The JASON Project brings adventure and also the thrill of discovery in to the classroom, going through the following questions:

1. What exactly are nature’s dynamic systems?

2. How can scalping strategies affect existence?

3. What technologies will we use to review scalping strategies and why?

Journey North tracks wildlife migration throughout the different seasons of the season.
The journeys of the dozen migratory species are tracked each spring. Students share their very own field observations with classrooms over the Hemisphere. Additionally, students are associated with scientists who provide their expertise straight to the classroom. Several migrations are tracked by satellite telemetry, supplying live coverage of person creatures because they migrate. Because the spring season sweeps over the Hemisphere, students note alterations in daylight, temperatures, all life because the food chain returns to existence. Over 7,500 schools, representing greater than 370,000 students, took part in the 2002 Journey North Program. These students come from all 50 U.S. States and seven Canadian Provinces

Mapping Our City. Understanding how to Use Spatial Data in the centre School Science Classroom — McWilliams, Harold Rooney, Paul. 1997. TERC, Cambridge, MA. 8 p. mapcity.terc.edu/

Mapping Our City is really a two-year project by which junior high school students and teachers in Boston explore the purposes of GIS in project-based science, ecological education, and geography. This paper is really a progress set of how individuals students are coming up with and taking advantage of spatial data to evaluate a metropolitan river. Key findings include using maps to concentrate student attention on spatial facets of the information, using GIS to arrange and store students data, and making GIS technology earlier to make use of.

Mapping our atmosphere is really a curriculum from the Missouri Botanical Garden. We have an excellent overview and intro to GIS skills, then provides projects in climate, natural background and elevation.

Mapping Our School Site (MOSS) using Geographic Human Resources (GIS) is really a project by which teachers as well as their students monitor a ten-meter by 10-meter site on their own school campuses. The information collected can be used to formulate and evaluate the relationships between your abiotic and biotic aspects of the atmosphere. Problem questions formulated by student research groups are examined using GIS, phenomena are modeled, and answers are conveyed.

Mapping The World is really a robust curricular package. It has seven modules with 19 complete GIS lesson plans covering important elements of both physical and human geography. It features a one-year instructional-use site license of ArcView version 3.x for Microsoft Home windows and Mac pc computers, geographic data for all those training, along with a teacher resource CD-ROM including digital versions from the training along with other sources. The seven modules from the book are made around different geographic styles. Students investigate each theme on three different levels, having a different lesson for every level.

o The global perspective lesson targets first-time GIS students and provides them the chance to understand more about real data from around the globe, create maps, and get essential questions.

o The regional situation study lesson also targets first-time GIS students, but concentrates on a specific part of the world, allowing students to gain access to regional data and information, and also to evaluate regional issues.

o The advanced analysis lesson targets experienced ArcView users, requiring significant independent work, self-motivation, and complicated problem-solving skills.

The work addresses the critical national have to improve the caliber of both science and geography education and literacy. This require is especially acute within the regions of physical geography and atmosphere-society relations because an educated citizenry is essential for confronting the process of global ecological change and economic, political, and telecomutting saves gas associated with resource scarcity

NatureMapping teaches students how you can monitor and report the wildlife they observe and also the habitats they observe them in. This could include wildlife in a backyard feeder, on the woodland or prairie hike, inside a school yard, or at the job. anywhere you find wildlife. The information you collect is reported to all of us via this site to ensure that you can use it and viewed by participants or other people that is interested in wildlife and habitats.

NatureMapping enables humans to understand more about fellow living beings that we share this earth. It will help us discover “who’s availableInch and their current address. NatureMapping is an ideal way to apply your appreciation of nature and lead necessary details about common wildlife species.

SAGUARO. Science and GIS Unlocking Analysis and Research Possibilities world wide web.saguaro.geo.arizona.edu/about.htm

Using GIS as being an issue solving and inquiry tool on your lawn Sciences. Using GIS within the classroom enables for data manipulation, exploration as well as an inquiry- based approach. Students can visualize the information, use current data, and explore patterns around the global scale after which apply that to some local scale. Our modules make use of a multimedia approach, incorporating animations, video, audio, and digital stills. Even though students may learn some technological skills, computer skills aren’t necessary. Presently you will find three complete modules: Exploring Tropical Cyclones, Going through the Dynamic Earth, Exploring Water Sources.

A really dynamic program having a lengthy history, well develop GIS projects including: Keeping track of Ozone, Stream Monitoring, UVB and DNA, Climatic Change, Winter Bird Survey, Lichens and SO2, Digital Monarch Watch, Amphibian Biomonitoring, Particulate Monitoring and Construction Function.

PROJECT T.I.E.S. “ Targeted Investigations In Ecological Science” world wide web.rst2.edu/ties/

This project will enable SCIENCE and SOCIAL SCIENCE teachers in grades 9-12 to integrate science and employ technology to elucidate interdisciplinary linkages by Targeted Investigations in Ecological Science TIES. The TIES project examines humankind’s use and disposal of chemicals, such as the impact of decision-making around the atmosphere and health. These problems focus on linkages among: scientific content concepts of information analysis sociological concerns economic factors and political perspectives.

VISIT is definitely an online professional development Collaboratory for middle and school teachers. Teachers learn how to develop their very own projects and training using the support of Teacher Leaders and an array of training along with other sources. Teachers develop skill in making use of geo-referenced data sets and tools for geospatial visualization and analysis, and integrating these to their own curriculum. Based on the nation’s Science Foundation, this Collaboratory offers three free graduate credits in science education for teachers who complete needs for any 3-credit web based course.

Visualizing Earth addresses four primary goals:

Promote fundamental research in cognition and visualization

Adapt existing GIS technology and knowledge sources for simplicity of use in schools

Develop model curriculum in the junior high school level to aid cognition and visualization research

Support implementation of national education standards in science, math and geography

Water on the internet (WOW) offers unique possibilities for top school and newbie university students to understand fundamental science through hands-on science activities, within the lab as well as in the area, and with condition-of-the-art technologies accessible via a free site. Teacher and student lesson plans are available on the website underneath the headings “Teacher ” and “Student “. Real water quality data. provided in tangible-some time and archived formats, is acquired with the project’s Remote Underwater Sampling Stations (RUSS).

The Methods from the Watersheds: An educator’s help guide to the ecological and cultural dynamics of recent You are able to City’s water supplies

This K-12 curriculum guide is really a 250-page manual incorporating a multitude of experience-based activities exploring current water issues and terminology. Diverse enough for use in academic studies varying from social studies, math, financial aspects, language arts and every one of the sciences, to drama and art. Even though this guide concentrates on water resources of New You are able to City throughout its seven chapters: hydrology, geology, ecosystem, pollution sources, development, technology and water conservation, the training could be adapted with other regions.

The WorldWatcher Senior High School Curriculum Project is really a yearlong, inquiry-based, visually intensive ecological science curriculum dedicated to three key issues: The connection between population growth and resource availability Electricity generation and meeting the interest in energy Managing water sources for farming use and people to drink. Within the first unit, students are brought to the analysis techniques that they’ll use through the curriculum. They start to wrestle using the problems of sustainability because they investigate development in population and resource usage.

A Different Way to determine . Geographic Information Brings Ecological Sciences to Existence Adapted from Science and kids, The month of january 2000 By Melinda Master, Julie Casper, Frank Hissong, and Elizabeth Rieben world wide web.blm.gov/education/00_sources/articles/gis/

Data Tools legitimate-World Learningwithin the ISTE journal – Leading and Learning with Technology, Beverly Hunter, world wide web.piedmontresearch.org/bib/ISTE.html