Abstract
In these vignettes, teachers relate creative ways in which they are using geospatial technology to bring science to life for their students. Their reflections demonstrate the application of skills, abilities, and knowledge developed through intensive professional development experiences profiled in this book.
Last year students were amazed when we explored the Genesee River as it ran from farmlands into Lake Ontario. You could see the upper-reaches of the river miles and miles and miles away as it runs through all of these really nice farmland areas. Then it starts to get slightly dirty from soil runoff, but all of a sudden it starts to come through the city of Rochester and the color of the water changes. It gets much darker. And you can see where it hits Lake Ontario, and there’s this huge influx of sediment into the lake. So, for them to get to see examples like that was incredible. My students were able to see some of the environmental concepts that we talked about such as runoff, non-point source pollution and related ideas.
Middle school teacher in New York
My students used GIS to analyze a variety of factors that might contribute to lobster settlement. Our goal was to help the local lobster hatchery determine where it might be best to release their larval stock. The students were able to focus on a project and problem that they knew was important to the local economy and many of the families in their community. Both the technology and the focus were extremely compelling to the students.
High school teacher in Maine
Using geospatial technologies made science fun and made it very connected to real life situations for these students. The fact that we could go look at geographic data for the oil spill in the Gulf, satellite data for the tsunami disaster in Japan, or other things in the news was powerful. So it’s definitely tied in a lot to the real world experiences, which I think they really appreciate and are interested in. I definitely think it gave them almost a hunger for learning about different scientific discoveries and things like that.
High School teacher in New York
Looking at landscapes from a GIS perspective is certainly a powerful way to examine what’s happening on the planet. There’s no doubt about it. Where land is being deforested, where lakes are being drained, where flooding is occurring. For example, we looked at the Three Gorges Dam in China, and tried to understand the effect that was having on the land.
Junior/High school teacher in New York
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MaKinster, J., Trautmann, N., Barnett, M. (2014). Introduction. In: MaKinster, J., Trautmann, N., Barnett, M. (eds) Teaching Science and Investigating Environmental Issues with Geospatial Technology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3931-6_1
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