GIS in Schools
PRICE: RM70.00
In northern Minnesota, students use Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites to track wolves, and a geographic information system--GIS--to analyze the animals' journeys across the winter landscape. On the east coast, in Chelsea, Massachusetts, high-school students stage a simulated spill of toxic chemicals, and manage the mock evacuation with the help of GIS. Halfway across the country in Missouri, two fifth graders analyze water quality in a neighborhood creek and with a GIS determine where and how the water is being polluted. In North Carolina, the supposedly dull subject of history shocks students when a GIS-based project brings 1949 fire insurance maps--graphic evidence of segregation--into their field of view for the first time.
These are just a few examples of the ways classrooms--and learning--are being transformed in elementary, middle, and high schools across North America. GIS in Schools documents these changes with case studies that show what can happen when students are given real-life problems to solve, and the technology of GIS to help solve them: new enthusiasm for learning, new dialogues between teachers and students, and new levels of interaction among schools and communities.
In addition, GIS in Schools offers teachers some practical ideas about how to implement GIS inside the classroom, as well as some theory behind the success stories. Administrators of larger urban school districts contending with growth, expanding districts, annexations, and diverse student populations will learn how the fifth largest city in North America--Toronto--found a way to get GIS into the hands of every student in its public schools.
Once the process has begun, it is hard to stop: GIS jump-starts the natural energy and desire of young people to learn, making the classroom--whether it stays indoors or ranges through neighborhoods, cities, and wilderness areas--a high-powered vehicle for exploration, study, and growth.
About the authors:
Richard Audet is Assistant Professor of Education at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island.
Gail S. Ludwig is Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Missouri-Columbia