GIS - A Thinker’s Tool

Do you want students to ...

Using a
Geographic
Information
System,
students do all those ...
they can't avoid it!

With GIS, students can explore any topic that involves locations. They can analyze how it relates to other conditions of a given place, or to similar features in other places. For instance ...

When high numbers of deformed frogs are found, what characteristics, near or far, might influence this?

Where local school populations are changing rapidly, how might attendance zones shift to optimize resources?

Where recent turmoil has uprooted a population, how might surrounding regions have contributed to the situation, and how might they respond?

When controversy about a facility threatens to tear a community apart, how can they visualize the information and evaluate the alternatives?

When a scourge strikes and spreads, where can barriers be erected effectively to limit its expansion?

GIS allows bringing together disparate data from diverse fields.
Users must wrestle with:

What is the challenge
for teachers?

The process of GIS

For any exploration,

Results are therefore hard to pre-define in terms of exact content.

Paradigm of Education

With GIS, teachers can provide students an opportunity and motive for

Iterative Processing
with GIS

Teacher’s Role

Critical Questions
for Teachers

GIS is a tool for
integrating thinkers,
of any age.

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