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VISIT (Virtual Immersion in Science Inquiry for Teachers
Spring 2002 Email Newsletter
May 14, 2002

Table of Contents
1.  VISIT Awards Scholarships for GIS Institute in Boulder, CO
2.  Register Now! for This Summer or Fall VISIT Online Courses
3.  Spring and Summer FTF Workshops are Scheduled
4.  Teacher Leaders Melissa Martin and Henrietta List Featured This Issue
5.  VISIT Teachers Investigate Local Community Demographics, Cancer Rates,
     Infrastructure, Underground Railway, Roller Coasters, and More
6.  A Weekend Solution: GIS Teamwork in the Collaboratory
7.  VISIT to Present at GIS Education Conference in July 2002
8.  National Advisory Board Meeting Scheduled for July 7, 2002
9.  Colorado School of Mines Offers Graduate Credit for VISIT Teachers
10. About the VISIT Program

1) VISIT Awards Scholarships for GIS Institute in Boulder, CO

Margaret Shaw Chernosky, teacher at Bangor High School in Bangor, Maine, and Brad Tracy, teacher at Wissahickon High School, Ambler, Pennsylvania, each received a $700 scholarship from the VISIT project to participate in a five-day GIS Institute for Educators in Boulder, Colorado in June 2002. The institute is sponsored by the Colorado Geographic Alliance and GIS ETC. Joseph Kerski and Steve Wanner, VISIT Teacher Leaders, will be two of the instructors. Chernosky is conducting a geospatial analysis of the inquiry, "Are Global Prosperity and Ecological Sustainability Possible?" Tracy is developing a new class on population, demographics, and physical geography. At the Institute, teachers will apply maps, charts, aerial photographs, databases, and images to analyze trends and patterns and interactions of the natural, cultural, and physical environment. For more information about this institute see http://www.gisetc.com.

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It is now time to register for a VISIT online course this summer from June 23 to August 18, or for a session in the fall semester beginning October 15. High school teachers of science, technology, or social sciences (either new to VISIT or returning from previous Collaboratory courses and face-to-face workshops) may now register via the online form at http://www.emich.edu/visit. Teachers who complete the course requirements can receive three graduate credits in science education from Eastern Michigan University without any fee. Graduate credits are also available from Colorado School of Mines.

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3) Spring and Summer FTF Workshops Are Schedule

VISIT groups at various locations in the U.S. have scheduled face-to-face workshops for teachers for this spring and summer. Check the Announcements on the VISIT web site for further developments.

* Metro Boston Chapter of Tech Prep is hosting a workshop at Bunker Hill Community College from 4-6 pm on May 15th to introduce area teachers to VISIT. Deborah Boisvert and Fred Hohn will lead the session. Teachers will log into VISIT and examine the variety of lessons available. Fred will show GIS in environmental science work that he has done in his classroom. For information about this or other Massachusetts workshops, contact Deborah Boisvert [bois01@bellatlantic.net].

*On May 23, Charlie Fitzpatrick, ESRI Education Specialist, will speak with VISIT leaders and teachers in Lenawee and Monroe County schools, Michigan. Ron Robinson and Randy Raymond, VISIT teacher leaders, and Anne Eschtruth will also present at this workshop.

* Oakland County Schools Summer GIS Workshop: June 17-21, 2002 VISIT will be hosting a GIS workshop for teachers involved in the Oakland County Schools/VISIT collaboration.

* VISIT teacher leader, Al Lewandowski, will lead a three day GIS section at the Michigan Geographic Alliance Technology Institute at Central Michigan University July 1-3, 2002. Contact: Al Lewandowski [alew222@yahoo.com].

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4) Teacher Leaders Melissa Martin and Henrietta List Featured This Newsletter

Melissa Martin and Henrietta List bring to VISIT and to K12 education their experience as professionals applying GIS in environmental decision-making

Melissa Martin says, "I love solving technical puzzles, so bring on the questions and I'll do my best to answer." Currently a teacher of several different science courses at Northbridge High School in Massachusetts, Martin brings to VISIT teachers her experience as a professional GIS specialist in environmental and ecological applications. She was employed by an environmental firm as a GIS Analyst. For Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission she worked on GIS projects in 40 different towns and subregions. She consulted to the Navajo Nation and was the GIS Developer for The Hopi Tribe's Office of Research and Planning in Northern Arizona. At USGS she developed expertise in ArcInfo. At Northern Arizona University she taught Map and Image Interpretation and cored the endangered Goodding Willow trees in Grand Canyon National Park. Martin is "passionate about GIS, data integrity and ground truthing." She enjoys ecological, environmental, geological and astrogeological GIS applications."

Henrietta List works with teachers throughout the state for the Maine Math/Science Alliance. She remarks, "We are putting a Macintosh I-Book in the hands of every seventh grader in the state of Maine next fall. I cannot think of a better time to encourage the development of skills in GIS in the schools throughout the state. Envisioning how it can be woven into our high school curriculum and then how to scaffold the skills through middle school is almost as exciting as identifying rare communities in mixed mesophytic coastal forests.

List brings to that statewide Maine challenge, and to VISIT, her lifelong passions and experiences as a conservation biologist. For the Nature Conservancy she used aerial photographs and conducted multifaceted analysis of resources to protect 1200 acres of rare coastal forest. In a similar project in Maine she used C-Cap images to observe changes in vegetation type over decades of suburban sprawl, and conceived a network of properties that could create an extended highway for wildlife to move about the coast without danger.

Fifteen teachers serve as leaders in the VISIT program. They are from many different locations in the U.S. and different kinds of schools -- urban, suburban, rural, public, and private. They have diverse experience in GIS and in education, and teach a spectrum of disciplines in science, social sciences, and technology. Teacher Leaders are using geospatial tools to support investigations in their own classrooms and communities in such topics as biodiversity, stream ecology, flooding, water chemistry, city infrastructure, school safety, forest management, and others. Teacher Leaders serve in a variety of roles in VISIT, such as the following:

• developing investigations and documenting their work for benefit of other teachers;
• evaluating draft lessons according to the VISIT rubric;
• recruiting teachers for the program;
• serving as mentors for other teachers
• providing online and face-to-face technical, scientific, curricular and pedagogical assistance to other teachers;
• moderating and facilitating online discussions
• advising on project management through bi-weekly teleconferences.

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5) VISIT Teachers Investigate Their Local Community Demographics, Cancer Rates, Infrastructure, Underground Railway, Roller Coasters, and More

The following teacher investigators are currently conducting inquiries with the support of peers and Teacher Leaders in the VISIT Collaboratory, geo-referenced data, and tools for spatial visualization and analysis. They are developing GIS-based lessons for their classrooms on these topics:

Jennifer Bellore, (North Farmington H.S., MI) distribution of seismic events in Michigan; Margaret Chernosky, (Bangor H.S., Maine), global prosperity and ecological sustainability; Alan Doyle (St. Bernard's School, New York), infrastructure of New York City; Sandra Grantley (Cardozo H.S.,D.C.), impact of subway stop on Cardozo-Shaw neighborhood in Washington D.C.; Lisa Hastings, (Discovery M.S., Plymouth-Canton, MI), underground railway stops in Wayne County Michigan; Janelle Kochanski, (N. Farmington H.S., MI) analysis of cancer rates in relation to cement plants; Eric Martin (Winthrop H.S., Maine), analysis of population, land use, and phosphorus levels in neighboring Cobbosee Lake; Pam McDonald, (Monson H.S., MA) mapping hazardous materials; Jill McGinn-Koepke, (Ann Arbor, MI) mapping local demographics; Clayton McKenzie (Monroe County CC, MI), relationships of plate tectonics and seismic events globally; Peggy Najarian, (N. Farmington H.S., MI), environmental justice; Alan Sills, (Patterson Public Schools, N.J.) mapping Passaic County streets and streams; real-time ozone monitoring in New Jersey; Eric Swager (Chelsea H.S. Massachusetts), modeling roller coaster locations and attraction factors in Cedar Point amusement park. Completed projects will be posted in the VISIT Collaboratory.

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6) A Weekend Solution: GIS Teamwork in the Collaboratory

The following sequence of messages provides insight into team dynamics and problem solving in the VISIT Collaboratory. Can you identify seven things that teacher Koch did in this discussion, that enabled others to help her find a technique for mapping toxic releases in Michigan, within her weekend deadline? (Note: teacher names are changed for privacy in Collaboratory examples.)

Message no. 4669 posted by Jean Koch on Sat May 04, 2002 14:54

Subject Please HELP!

I have all the data I need for my project and it all
works with ArcVoyager so I thought I was on a roll.
However, I tried to do a query with my TRI [Toxic
Release Inventory] data to focus on Michigan only
and the data is not corresponding with the map.
The Michigan data points appear in Iowa and
Minnesota and Wisconsin data points are in
Michigan!!

Can I fix this? The identity of the data is accurate
(latitude and longitude along with facilities and names)
it is just not identified on the map properly. Please
help me or offer advice if you can. I really need to
finish this lesson this weekend. Thanks!! Jean

Message no. 4670 [Branch from no. 4669] posted by Bev Hunter on Sat May 04, 2002 15:08

Subject Re: Please HELP!

Jean, I am now sending via email your message to
Yichun Xie who I think can assist you. This is
undoubtedly a projection issue. I'll see what I can
find out for you asap. Cheers, Beverly

Message no. 4673 [Branch from no. 4671] posted by Al Lewandowski on Sat May 04, 2002 18:29

Subject Re: Please HELP!

Hello Jean,

How 'bout if you try and post both the map layer and the
table as an attachment to a message?

Remember, the map (shapefile .shp) will actually consist
of 3 separate files all located in the same folder. They will
have the same name but different extensions (.dbf and
.shx).

You could put all the files in one folder and compress
it with winzip or the equivalant for Mac if that's your
platform. That might help one of us to discover the
problem.

al lew

Message no. 4674 [Branch from no. 4669] posted by Jean Koch on Sat May 04, 2002 20:57

Subject Re: Please HELP!

Attached are the files I am working with.

I downloaded the map and info from a site called
Clary-Meuser Research. I also located the original info
in a comma delimited text format, but I am not sure how
to change it into a format I can use. If you can offer
any guidance on how to convert the text, I can try and
see if it will fix my problem.

Thanks for your help.

Jean

Message no. 4675 [Branch from no. 4674] posted by Al Lewandowski on Sun May 05, 2002 04:17

Subject Re: Please HELP!

Hello Jean,

I made a sub-data set for Michigan which will be easier
for others to download, perhaps somebody else has a
thought about how to solve this problem. I'll keep trying,
but at the moment I'm out of ideas.

Al Lew

Message no. 4677 [Branch from no. 4675] posted by Yichun Xie on Sun May 05, 2002 10:30

Subject Re: Please HELP!

I found out a solution.

First load "mich.dbf" into an ArcView session, through
"adding a table"

Second create an event theme (through View menu, and Add
Event Theme menu choice)

Third specify the following parameters for the Add Event
Theme Dialog Box:

Table: mich.dbf X Field: Lon_used Y Field: Lat_used

You will create a new theme, which has right coordinate
(projection) and lines up with US State or County data layer.

Cheers,

Yichun

Message no. 4679 [Branch from no. 4678] posted by Jean Koch on Sun May 05, 2002 11:03

Subject Re: Please HELP!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! The Add Event Theme
worked like a charm. I wouldn't have figured that out
in a million years. Thanks for all your help.

Jean

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7) VISIT to Present at GIS Education Conference in July 2002

*VISIT project leaders Yichun Xie, Beverly Hunter, Randy Raymond, and Ron Robinson will represent the VISIT project and make presentations at the ESRI Education User Conference July 5-7, 2002 in San Diego, CA.

8) National Advisory Board Meeting Scheduled for July 7, 2002
VISIT National Advisory Board will meet at the ESRI Education User Conference July 7. Randy Raymond is organizing this annual event.

9) Colorado School of Mines Offers Graduate Credit for VISIT Teachers

VISIT Teacher Leader Steve Wanner at Boulder High School has arranged with the Colorado School of Mines to offer VISIT teachers the opportunity to receive two or four graduate credits for completing part or all of the VISIT online courses. For more information please contact Steve Wanner (303) 442-2430 x5312 wanner@bvsd.k12.co.us. The School of Mines credits are an alternative to the three graduate credits already offered for free from EMU.

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10) About the VISIT program

http://www.emich.edu/visit

VISIT is a professional development program for secondary school teachers, funded in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation's Teacher Enhancement program to Eastern Michigan University (EMU). Dr. Yichun Xie is Principal Investigator and Beverly Hunter is Co-Principal Investigator.

This is issue number 4 of the VISIT Newsletter. All issues of the newsletter are available at http://www.piedmontresearch.org/visit/newsletters/.

Posted by Beverly Hunter, Director, Piedmont Research Institute. Please re-post freely. Contact: bev@piedmontresearch.org

Beverly Hunter
Piedmont Research Institute
130 Mossie Lane
Amissville VA 20106
voice: 540 937-4038
fax: 540 937-7892
email: Bev@PiedmontResearch.org
http://www.piedmontresearch.org

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