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Geoinformatics_03-2009
article these skills we need to bring gis and industry-standard training into the classroom. who is teaching gis well? education isn t just about teaching students facts. it s also about teaching them how to reflect, analyse and problem solve. that, certainly, is the view of the grammar school at leeds who are one of the schools who have integrated gis into their teaching. this progressive school embeds tailored gis lessons into several subject areas, including geography, biology, history and religious studies, and believes that its use of gis engages students and challenges them to think. they find that their students start to use gis as a tool to help fieldwork and coursework, and as they use it more they understand the techniques and are able to undertake quite advanced gis analysis as they reach gcse and a level. in one project, students took raw data about childhood health and living conditions from the internet and joined it to the primary care trust boundaries base map. they then created choropleth maps to help them identify potential links between unfit housing and asthma. these real-life exercises equip young people with practical gis skills that they can employ in their future occupations. but, these exercises also help students to develop analytical skills that will benefit them in many ways, throughout their lives. gis is also being taught in universities not just in geography departments but in many different subjects both at under-graduate and post-graduate levels. it is also used in various research teams ranging from zoology to archaeology, from geology to sociology. why there is a need for the a level book to coincide with its entry into the geography a level curriculum, esri (uk) and the geographical association (ga) joined forces to publish the first european gis a-level textbook; previously, gis text books in english were only published in north america. consisting of a text book, exercises and esri gis software, teachers and students now have access to a comprehensive gis teaching aid - a complete guide to the theory and applications of gis, with five practical exercises described step-by-step. written by dr peter o connor, head of geography at bishop s stortford college in england and a member of the geographical association ict working group. the book is written from a teachers point of view and describes how governments, organisations and individuals are using gis to grapple with increasingly complex social, economic and environmental problems. it then develops students latest news? visit www.geoinformatics.com ing. with today s children being more familiar with technology and the digital environment than ever before, they just need to be pointed in the right direction and given the opportunity to explore the software as they progress through their work. lesson plans that link into the curriculum are vital if we are to encourage teachers to use gis. they need to be able to learn the software, download something and use it straight away. in time, the ideal scenario would be to encourage teachers to share lesson plans thus building an evolving resource and library that links into the uk curriculum across many subjects, written by teachers for teachers. esri (uk) is committed and passionate about supporting gis within both the school and further / higher education arena. putting something back into our community and working with the next generation is an ideal way to do this. while we have supported various initiatives in the last few years that help promote the use of gis within schools, we are now looking at how we can improve on this. during this year we intend to launch a at last year's esri emea user conference, students from the project that will help teachers integrate gis grammar school at leeds took to the podium alongside teachers into their teaching. it is all about community to demonstrate how they have been using gis in their studies. - how to build a modern community which obviously means an online community and gis skills through the use of gis software. about using the power of the technology to an understanding of gis plays a crucial role in help children learn, building a skilled workforce introducing students to modern methods of for the future. spatial data capture, processing, analysis and gis day and geography awareness week are presentation. many chapters in the book can international campaigns that promote geograbe used as case study material to reinforce stuphy, inspire future careers and encourage the dents learning about the different stages of a learning of new geographical skills by both geographical investigation. teachers and pupils. gis day is aimed at showthrough this resource teachers have the exering students the vast extent to which geocises, data and software all provided in one graphical information underpins daily life, with place along with the theory. it allows teachers activities taking place in over 80 countries. this to integrate gis into their lessons in a very year gis day is 18th november and everyone straightforward manner. the book is inexpenis invited to take part visit www.gisday.com sive and so allows the teacher to trial the confor details. good geographical knowledge and cepts without a large financial outlay. skills are vital for all of us, as responsible citifor sample pages of the book please see: zens, if we are to fully understand the nature www.geography.org.uk/post16he/ of change in the world s people, places and environments. we can and must - support what does the future hold? the next generation to foster these skills. the schools market requires something that will angela baker is community programmes manager at make gis much more accessible to teachers esri (uk). go to www.esriuk.com/education for more and therefore to children. they do not need information or to learn more about the work being professional gis, but gis software that is easy done in promoting gi in education see the following to use and relevant to the curriculum. this links: means they need more than a piece of software. royal geographical society (with ibg) www.rgs.org geographical association www.geography.org.uk data is very important, especially for their local action plan for geography and fieldwork areas. this needs to be accesswww.geographyteachingtoday.org.uk ible and easy to import into the gis. they must esri (uk) gis day resources also have lesson plans which show how the www.esriuk.com/gisday/ideasresources software is relevant to what they are teaching mapzone and links into the curriculum they are followhttp://mapzone.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/mapzone april/may 2009 23
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