GIS/GPS (6-12)

GIS and GPS Workshop for Middle and High School Teachers

Nancy Staus, Department of Science and Math Education at Oregon State University, and Richard Ash, Global Mapping Technology, introduced a group of middle and high school teachers to the basic functions of a geographic information system (GIS, specifically ArcMap) and the use of global positioning systems (GPS). Through hands-on lessons, teachers practiced adding spatial data to a GIS and analyzing the data to answer specific questions. They learned how to present their work as meaningful maps to support final conclusions. Teachers spent one day of the workshop outside in the field gathering data with a GPS unit and tried their skills at geo-caching.  All participants received a copy of the textbook Mapping Our World Using GIS (see citation following) as well as a resource manual. A set of GPS units is available for classroom use (contact information below).

Workshop Resources

Textbook: 
Mapping Our World Using GIS by Anita Palmer, Roy Palmer, Lyn Malone,  and Christine Voigt, ESRI Press, ISBN: 9781589481817  2008.

Equipment to Loan:
A set of 8 Garmin GPS units is available to area teachers to use in their classrooms.  Contact Kari van Zee, vanzeek@science.oregonstate.edu to borrow the equipment.

Wolf Habitat Workshop Project:
Teachers who attended the workshop used actual data collected for a wolf re-establishment feasibility study. If you are interested in obtaining this data set for classroom use please contact Kari van Zee, vanzeek@science.oregonstate.edu