Here, There, and Everywhere: Whether out in the Field or in the Classroom, Students Are Using Mapping Technologies to Develop an Awareness of Where Data Comes from and What It Means

ALTHOUGH DIGITAL MAPPING DEVICES are growing in use in the society at large--from sports enthusiasts and census takers, to cars and boats--the technologies are just starting to gain traction in K-12. Advocates of digital mapping in the field and classroom say that it encourages skills like critical thinking and decision-making, and can serve as an excellent way for students to learn where data comes from and how to collect it, along with learning about their local area's history, geography, topography, animal and plant populations, and much more. Digital mapping for educational purposes begins in the field with a global positioning system, which is used to receive information from several dozen GPS satellites orbiting the earth. Students can use GPS devices to pinpoint various locations with remarkable accuracy. Recently, prices have dropped on GPS devices, making them much more affordable for schools. For example, a basic system from Garmin International (www.garmin.com) that is common in K-12 use retails for around $100. Back in the classroom, a "geographic information system" is used to collect the map points into a database for further manipulation. The information entered into the GIS can be collected in the field on a GPS device, or can come from elsewhere--the internet is a rich source of location-specific data. Students import that data to a GIS database and can create tables and maps, overlaying and comparing layers of information such as weather, land boundaries, historic locations, and scientific data. Along with growing public appreciation of the value of visual mapping, and drops in equipment and software prices, there's another reason mapping technologies are gaining in popularity in education: The software has become much easier to use. Whereas GIS packages were once expensive and difficult to use, new software has recently appeared that is simple, designed for non-scientific users--including K-12 students--and best of all, often free or very inexpensive. "We're trying to make sure that teachers don't have huge technical issues to overcome," says Mike Bridge, vice president of marketing and product management at PASCO (Paul A. Stokstad Co.) Scientific (www.pasco.com), which offers several tools that can be used for GPS and GIS purposes. "The usability bar is continuing to drop." According to professor Marsha Alibrandi, students worldwide are conducting original research in the field as part of GPS and GIS projects. Alibrandi works in social studies education in the Graduate School of Education and Allied Professions at Fairfield University in Connecticut. She is the author of the book GIS in the Classroom: Using Geographic Information Systems in Social Studies and Environmental Science. As an example of one of the hundreds of projects Alibrandi has participated in, students used probes to gather data at specific points on a local river. The points were tied to a computerized map of their town and the surrounding area. When the collected data was then loaded into a GIS system, it revealed spikes of high nutrients at one location on a given date. The students traced the cause back to a specific septic system failure, which was then repaired. More Educational Uses The most common use of mapping technology in education, according to Charlie Fitzpatrick, K-12 education manager at ESRI (www.esri.com), a large GIS mapping software company, takes students and teachers outdoors, where they use GPS devices to gather information at various geographic points. They then return to the classroom, transfer the data to a GIS system, and work with it further. "We work with lots of teachers who are going out with their GPS units doing the data gathering, whether it's water-quality monitoring or [counting] squirrel nests in trees," Fitzpatrick says. …