Geospatial Technology Skills

As we wind down the fall semester it is clear through your projects that you have gained significant knowledge in the use of ArcMap and spatial thinking skills. What do you think are the most significant skills or concepts that you have learned? How do you envision using the Geospatial Technology skills in the future? List at least three skills or concepts you have learned and discuss how each may impact your life as a student and citizen.

Teaching 4th Graders Google Earth

Describe the experience of teaching 4th graders how to use Google Earth. What did you learn about spatial thinking or geospatial technologies during this experience?

Remote Sensing

What did you learn about Remote Sensing and how it impacts our lives in Cedar Falls?

Teaching 7th Graders the GPS experience

If you were able to go to Boone, Iowa with us on May 1, reflect on the experience. What went well in the process? What needs to be changed in the process of instructing students in the use of GPS? What comments did you receive about the teaching you did or the activities we planned? How did spatial thinking play a role in what you did and what the students did during the activities?

Got Flooding?

Yesterday and last night we experienced heavy rain in the Cedar Valley. 4.71 inches of rain fell in the past 24 hours. As a consequence Dry Run Creek just south of the school left it's banks. How could we use GPS, GIS or other technologies to help us map the highest level of the flooding? What do we need to consider? How can we apply what we have learned in class to better understand the flood waters and their behaviors?

Spatial Thinking Revisited

At the beginning of the semester we discussed and completed activities that asked you to use spatial thinking skills. How have you used your spatial thinking skills since our initial activities. Has your awareness of spatial thinking skills changed the way you do things in your everyday life? How can you use spatial thinking skills to enhance your education at NU High?

Frequently Visited Places Activity

This weekend choose ten places that you frequently visit. These could be grocery stores, worship centers, parks, businesses, or other establishments that you visit frequently. Go to each place and create a waypoint mark with your GPS. Give the waypoint a name and then take a digital picture of the location. Make sure the 10 places are saved on your GPS.

List the ten places you visited here on the blog before class on Monday (4/7).

Good luck and have fun!

GPS Article Review

Post your review of the article that you chose to read.

Making Maps with ArcGIS

What has amazed you about ArcGIS while you have been creating your World and U.S. map project? Describe, in detail, two of the techniques you have used to create maps with the ArcGIS software.

Students Debate Cell Requirement

In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings of last year, cell phones with GPS receivers are being required at universities across the United States. Read the article "Students Debate Cell Requirement". Do you think GPS enabled cell phones should be required across university campuses? To get to the article go to http://www.gpsworld.com/gpsworld/ Click on "Seen + Heard - January, 2008".

Charting the Course: Map Websites

In a short paragraph describe the website you chose to present to our UNI GIS partners.

Overkillix3D Reflection

What was your strategy? What were the results?

Sequence Strategy

You developed a strategy to beat your opponents in the game sequence. Describe the strategy that you used. Was your strategy successful? How would you modify your strategy to make it better next time? How did spatial thinking impact your strategy?

How did you describe that?

Today you were given a figure to describe to a classmate so that they could draw it on paper. Then you were asked to create your own figure and descibe that to your partner so that they could draw it. Did your spatial thinking change when you were able to describe your own picture? How did it change?

What is Spatial Thinking?

How would you describe spatial thinking?

Welcome to Applications in Geographic Information Systems.

Welcome! I have been looking forward to teaching this class for a long time. On this blog you will find information for class, reactions of your classmates and other information during class.

Syllabus information:

Overview: This course is designed to give the high school student experience with various forms of Geospatial Technologies (GST). Technologies such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) will be utilized during the course. There will be a special emphasis on spatial thinking during the course utilizing games and activities as the basis for this learning. Students will also be asked to work in groups and to work with students from UNI. These collaborations will all be done within the confines of the class period and will be supervised by both the university teacher and Mr. Nielsen.

As I have researched GST in schools over the last year and I have found that there are few, if any, courses like this one in the United States. The curriculum for the class is new and you are the first class to use the materials. From time to time I will be asking for your opinions regarding the class activities and the processes. Please be honest during those evaluations. Thanks for registering for this class and I am looking forward to working with you during this inaugural meeting of Applications in Geographic Information Systems.

Materials:

1. You will be expected to have a 1.5 inch three ring binder for this class. The binder will house handouts, articles, projects, and other miscellaneous items you will collect during the class.
2. Data collection and storage in two places is strongly recommended.
A 1 or 2 GB USB flash drive is suggested. Your flash drive will allow you to store necessary data for the class.

Activities:

PLS GIS Blog http://plsgis08.blogspot.com/: The PLS/GIS blog will be an integral part of this course. Since this course has never been offered before we will find out what we know about Geospatial Technologies and spatial thinking and we will observe ourselves as we learn more about these important concepts. Each week you will be asked to enter a comment into the class blog. The entry should be a reflective comment on the topic of what we are learning in class. You will be given a topic for your comments. The comment can be of any reasonable length over one sentence. IMPORTANT: Your comments will be centered on what you have learned in the class. Remember this blog can be seen from any computer anywhere in the world. Be thoughtful in your remarks. Do not use names in your entries.

Papers and Projects: You will be asked to write responses to articles and/or other reading during this course. We will make presentations to audiences (to be determined later) that will demonstrate your knowledge of GST. It is quite possible that you will be working with a UNI class or classes on projects during this course. We will be completing the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) Community Atlas project . The community atlas project will ask you to work in a group to solve a community problem. The Community Atlas project has a framework that will guide you through the project. This project quite possibly will be done with a university class.