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What
kind of a lesson or project should I develop?
There are a range of possibilities, from easy to most challenging:
Easy: The easiest is to take an existing
GIS-based lesson such as those provided on the ESRI Schools & Libraries
CD, or the lessons in the VISIT “GIS for Teachers”, and revise that lesson to
suit your curriculum, pedagogy, students, classroom situation, and possibly
your local environment.
Intermediate: Take a lesson or topic you already
teach in your classroom, and create a version of that lesson that takes
advantage of georeferenced data and tools – either desktop software such as
ArcView/ArcVoyager or an interactive mapping service on the World Wide Web.
Challenging: Some teachers have in mind a fairly
complex project or investigation, perhaps one that is already underway in
their schools or communities, and they want to use GIS to support that
project. In this case, the teacher (or team) should work with VISIT leaders
to define a manageable “chunk” of the work to develop as a first lesson that
may become part of a larger series of lessons involved in your project.
Examples of teacher-developed lessons and investigations are available from
the VISIT web site at http://ceita.emich.edu/visit/investigation/Investigations.htm
How do I get help with my
project?
At each step you develop an interim product, such as a worksheet or a list of
data requirements, to share with other members of your topical forum. You
should expect to get advice and assistance at each step, and you should also
provide such assistance to other teachers in your forum. When someone
provides you with an idea, or a reference, or a question, please do
acknowledge their contribution by replying to their message. In addition, do
consider working closely with one or two other teachers or leaders on a
collaborative effort that will result in one lesson that you each tailor to
your own situation. Also, some teachers have a person in their local
community or local government GIS office who assists them. In some cases, we
have found professional GIS experts who provide advice or data sets to
support a teacher’s project.
What
are the main steps involved in developing a project?
Below are six main steps or tasks involved in developing a lesson. The Table
of Contents in “Develop a Lesson” segment of VISIT provides materials to
assist you at each step in this process.
Task 1: Designing the Project
Define the lesson topic, objectives, assessment,
activities, and alignment. A worksheet is provided for you to describe
learning objectives, assessment tools, learning activities, and curricular
alignments. You might use the VISIT Rubric to think about a range of
components and criteria for your lesson.
Task 2: Building the Base Map
The “Guide to building a base map” explains what a base
map is, the main decisions you need to make, and how to get the base map
layers for your GIS project.
Task 3: Locating Data
Learn what types of data can be used in GIS. Explore the
sources of these data types such as the ESRI Schools & Libraries CD,
online downloadable databases, local agencies, periodicals, or create your
own. Find out how to use keywords and search engines to locate desired online
data. Become familiar with the basics of interpreting standardized meta-data
files. Locate data for your lesson.
Task 4: Preparing Data
Learn how to capture data from the Internet and/or your
students’ field data. Find out how to convert data to the appropriate format.
Add data into an ArcView project.
Task 5: Writing a Lesson
Use GIS software and data to conduct the inquiry and
analysis you want your students to do, and document the process and concepts
in the form of instructions and worksheets for your students. Identify
standards and benchmark, determine the desired understanding, create the
assessment tools to check for understanding, and develop lesson that is
conducive to student success.
Task 6: Completing the Project
Complete all lesson components. You may want to evaluate
your lesson by using the VISIT Rubric for evaluating lessons. Package up the
data and GIS project. Make final revisions based on feedback and post final
products.
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