Spatial Thinking with ArcExplorer –Java Edition for Education: Applications for Grades 4-6

The newly released ArcExplorer--Java Edition for Education offers new opportunities to introduce younger students to using GIS to improve spatial thinking. The simple interface and limited command set make it ideal for both younger students and their teachers. We've developed a suite of activities using ArcExplorer--Java Edition for Education to teach students in grades 4-6 about latitude and longitude, spatial proximity, querying and other key spatial skills. These activities connect directly with curriculum standards in these grades in both science and social studies. We'll demonstrate these activities and relate our observations of classrooms using them, along with teachers' reflections on that use. We'll conclude the session with a discussion of future plans for developing additional activities. Introduction While GIS is a very attractive tool for K-12 classrooms, relatively few teachers and students are actually using it on a regular basis (K erski, 2003). There are a variety of reasons for this lack of use, but one is that there is not a clear entry point and activities available for younger students. While students can certainly use Arc View 3.x, teachers can find it intimidating and the available activities (e.g. Mapping Our World) are more appropriate for older students. However, with the release of ArcExplorer – Java Edition for Education (A EJEE), there are new possibilities for younger students and their teachers. While the ultimate goal would be a scope and sequence for the effective use of GIS across the K-12 continuum, we have begun by developing a set of introductory activities for A EJEE that address curriculum content and standards for grades 4-6. In this paper, we will describe the activities and share initial reactions from students and teachers. Why G IS for Elementary Students? The elementary curriculum is already beyond overflowing with content needed to meet state standards and the No Child Left Behind rules. Why add one more thing? The short answer is very simple. Many, if not most, of our current students are visual learners and can take advantage of the technology to help them learn core content. GIS allows teachers to integrate technology directly into a variety of content areas, including social studies, science, and/or math, allows students to use technology as a tool to help understand their world. Finally, GIS is foremost a tool to make decisions. That is, GIS users are trying to solve a problem of interest and they use the software to allow them to make a decision or come to a solution. Students can do the same thing and have the experience of making a decision in the context of a problem. This takes the students beyond simple fact absorption and helps them to build critical-thinking skills, an evermore important requirement of our knowledge-based economy. G IS Activities We've developed four lessons for students in grades 4-6 to introduce them to GIS and making decisions using data. The activities are sequenced as follows: Imaginary Lines Students explore latitude and longitude and the locations of different countries with respect to the hemispheres of the Earth. Where Are You Students map their location on the Earth with respect to their country, county and ecosystem. Current Quakes Students download current earthquake data from the Internet and look for patterns in seismic activity across the globe. Maps for Decision Making Students build a base map of a small town and determine where an additional fire station should be located. Students also decide which roads should be closed to facilitate the visit of the President of the U .S. to a local university. Before we explore each of the activities, we need to discuss the A EJEE software. G IS Software There are many GIS packages available. However most of them are intended for audiences other than elementary students. The activities described above were written for Arc Explorer – Java Edition for Education. This is a Java-based package that runs on various versions of Windows and the Macintosh OS X operating system. It is freeware and available for download at http://www.esri.com/aejee. When you download the software, you also get wide variety of interesting data to explore. With this software, you can even access ArcIMS data directly from the Internet and put it on a map with a couple of clicks. We've helped teachers in a variety of schools install and use the software with positive results and few problems. A EJEE can perform the basic functions of a GIS, such as displaying and symbolizing data layers, querying, and buffering. It does not allow the full range of control of the map symbols, layout, or data editing as ArcGIS 9 or Arc View 3.x. However, many of these functions are not needed in introductory activities. The limited range of tools make the software more accessible to younger students, and especially their teachers. Activity Descriptions Each activity relates to standard topics in grades 4-6 and introduces basic functions of GIS software. The relevant national curriculum standards addressed by each activity are listed in Appendix A . Every activity comes with four parts: instructions for the activity, a student worksheet, teacher notes, and the data for the activity. The teacher notes contain learning goals/objectives, connections to standards in different content areas, and sample answers to the student questions. Every document is in Microsoft Word format, making it easy to customize the activity to a particular classroom or subject. We'll explore each activity in turn and show sample screenshots to illustrate the activity. These activities (and others) can be downloaded at no charge through the Arclessons site sponsored by ESRI, Inc. Go to http://www.esri.com/arclessons and select ArcExplorer in the "Search by Software " menu. The activities are listed in the order we suggest that you do them. Each activity builds on the previous one, moving from introductory-level GIS skills to more advanced skills and thinking by the time you've completed the final activity. The directions also vary from very prescriptive in the first lesson to somewhat open-ended in the final lesson. Imaginary Lines In this activity, students focus on the basics of latitude and longitude. It is a great first activity as it presumes no prior knowledge of GIS. The students start by exploring the function of different tools as they explore a map of the world. One by one, they add layers with different data, including lines of latitude and longitude. They identify the position of the Equator and Prime Meridian and explore how latitude and longitude vary as you move around the globe. Figure 4 shows a screenshot showing a map with some of the layers the students will explore. Figure 4. Screenshot of Imaginary Lines. In this portion of the activity, students are exploring how latitude and longitude vary across the globe. Note that the latitude and longitude are shown in the bottom left-hand corner and the scale of the map is shown at the bottom center of the screen. For older students, there is a data layer that contains important latitude and longitude, including the Equator, Prime Meridian, Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, International Dateline, along with the Artic and Antarctic Circle. For younger students, this can be replaced with a data layer that only contains the Equator and the Prime Meridian. We've found that for younger students, the simpler layer makes it easier for them to understand the activity. As students continue with the activity, they explore the differences between the different hemispheres (northern and southern, eastern and western). Students learn how to do simple queries to identify world capitals that are in different hemispheres. Queries are questions that the ArcExplorer software can answer with the available data. Figure 5 shows a query identifying all the cities in the data layer (only a subset of world capitals are included in the data layer) that are both in the northern and western hemisphere. The query window is also shown to illustrate how the students build their questions. This is a wonderful connection with databases and with some basic mathematical reasoning (the logical "and" and "or"). Figure 5. Screenshot from Imaginary Lines. Students build simple queries to identify which cities are in the different hemispheres. They can also build compound queries to locate cities in, for instance, both the northern and western hemispheres. Selected cities are highlighted in yellow. Imaginary Lines has both strong geography and strong mathematics content and has many possible extensions using the data the comes with the activity or with the downloaded software. A t the end of the activity, students explore how the scale of a map varies based on the features which you're exploring (continents vs. counties). Where Are You In Where Are You, students build a base map of a community in the United States by adding the latitude and longitude of the community from a text file. This is the same process that students would use to upload data from a Global Positioning System (GPS) unit. GPS units allow students to record the latitude and longitude of their location and are great tools for students to use to collect data about their localities. A detailed discussion of GPS in Education is beyond the scope of this paper, but you can find out more at http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/gps/. After students have uploaded the location and put it on the map, they add additional data layers and identify to which state, county and ecosystem the community belongs. Figure 6 shows a screenshot with the various data layers. Figure 6. Screenshot from Where Are You. Students identify state, county and ecosystem using the information tool. The sample community is Harrisonburg, V A , marked as a red dot in the central Shenandoah V alley. Students can easily customize this activity to their own location by knowing the relevant latitude and longitu