Students enrolled in the GIS Independent study program master basic ArcView GIS skills through lessons developed by Dr. Griffin, take courses on ESRI’s Virtual Campus site, and then must complete a community project using GIS. Students may work with local governmental groups (police, fire, health, conservation commission, planning board, assessors), or with various environmental groups on local environmental issues.

Although she is still working on additional phases of the GIS Independent Study curriculum for her school district, she was able to volunteer her time during the summer with MassGIS.

New Data Viewer Activities:

As part of her volunteer ship, Dr. Griffin revised existing MassGIS Data Viewer installation directions and created a series of five "Training Exercises" to facilitate teacher learning of the MassGIS Data Viewer and a ten-lesson packet of "Student Lessons" for use in high school classrooms. These materials are described below and are available for download in portable document file (.PDF) format, readable with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.

The materials created by Dr. Griffin for MassGIS utilize the MassGIS Data Viewer (free to Massachusetts' public school teachers through our "GIS in the Classroom" program) and do not require additional software. Through her Training Exercises and Student Lessons, teachers should be able to become familiar with and confident using the Data Viewer. With their newfound GIS skills and experiences, teachers may then expand the Viewer and modify the lessons for their classroom use.

The "Student Lessons" are designed to develop student skills in GIS, and also provide both students and teachers with enough knowledge to develop their own local lessons using their community's data. The data layers available through the Viewer are appropriate for a variety of classroom subjects - science, social studies, language arts, geography, economics, and math. The teacher and student materials are designed to encourage teachers to cross disciplines and work with other teachers. Dr. Griffin's students lessons are geared for high school level, but can also be used in the middle school levels (grades 7 and 8).

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"Training Exercises":

The five training exercises are designed to follow the skills presented at workshops by Paul Nutting, MassGIS' Education Outreach Coordinator. Using these exercises, teachers will learn the basic Data Viewer skills and develop the confidence to explore the Viewer on their own. The Exercises include detailed illustrations and diagrams and are written to lead the teacher step-by-step through the Data Viewer.

Download the lessons (in .PDF format):

• Exercise 1 - The Interface
• Exercise 2 - Using a Theme
• Exercise 3 - Adding and Manipulating Themes
• Exercise 4 - Using Theme Tables and Querying the Data
• Exercise 5 - Making a Layout (Map)
• Get the free Adobe Acrobat Reader

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"Student Lessons":

The student lessons are designed to introduce the Data Viewer and the MassGIS data layers. Students are presented a series of activities through lessons that focus on a major Massachusetts data layer. Unlike the Teacher Exercises, the students are given step by step text, with no pictures or diagrams. Students must work their way through the steps by carefully reading and following the directions. The teachers are provided with images of the steps along the way or a final map layout diagram, to be sure students are on the correct path.

In working with her high school students, Dr. Griffin has observed that students do better with learning GIS when they must follow text directions. With diagrams provided, students often begin trial and error methods to get the same images. Requiring them to read text step by step not only improves their ability to follow directions, but also keeps them focused on the skills they must learn.

Lessons 1 through 3 emphasize the concept of “watershed”. Lessons 4 through 7 emphasize the concept of trails (long-distance, historical, local, and created) and measurement. Lessons 8 through 10 introduce the student to land-use issues, environmental problems, and the importance of understanding data interrelationships and limitations when making decisions.

Throughout the lessons, students are asked to look at the data layers from a state, regional, and local perspective. For example, students learn the "mega-watersheds" in Massachusetts, the major watersheds within their region, and the watershed basins where their community, school and homes are situated.

Download the lessons and sample final maps (in .PDF format):

• Lesson 1- “Discovering Your Community's Watershed Basics – We Are All Connected”
   - Sample final map
• Lesson 2 - “Sub-Watersheds in Your Community”
   - Sample final map
• Lesson 3 - “My Ecological Address”
   - Sample final map
• Lesson 4 - “Long Distance State Trails – Where Should We Begin Maintenance?”
   - Sample final map
• Lesson 5 - “Long Distance State Trails – Proposed Trail Access Areas”
   - Sample final map
• Lesson 6 - “Urban Trails – Designing a Historical and Open Space Walking Trail in Your Community”
   - Sample final map (a)
   - Sample final map (b)
• Lessons 7-10 forthcoming
• Get the free Adobe Acrobat Reader

In addition, the following "Student Key Concepts" (in .PDF format) will help guide students through the exercises:

• Data Types: Polints, Lines, Polygons
• Symbol Palette Types: Pen, Marker, Font, Color, Fill
• Using Theme Attribute Tables
• Setting Legend Types 1: Single Symbol, Graduated Color, Unique Value
• Setting Legend Types 2: Graduated Color - Normalize by percent of total
• Using the Legend Editor 1: Theme Classification and Labels
• Using the Legend Editor 2: Symbol Appearance in the View's Table of Contents

The Challenge Ahead:

As teachers and students acquire the basic skills necessary to use the Data Viewer, they will soon be generating creative ways of using the data layers in their communities. Teachers and students are encouraged not only to design their own activities, but also to share these with MassGIS. Those activities that have value for other schools may be selected for posting on the MassGIS Web site.

Dr. Griffin and her colleagues have used the MassGIS Data Viewer in their Global Ecology, Environmental Problems, Field Botany, Environmental Chemistry, and Earth Science courses. During the coming school year, they hope to spread the Data Viewer to the Social Studies, Language Arts, Foreign Languages, and Mathematics teachers.

For more information on this GIS Education program, please contact Paul Nutting, MassGIS' Education Outreach Coordinator, at paul.nutting@state.ma.us or (617) 626-1238. Also see the "GIS in the Classroom" section of this Web site for details on ordering the Data Viewer for classroom use.
 

Last Updated 5/30/2001
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