"The last time I used GIS in my classroom, I....."

[Alan Parkinson]

I would be very grateful for anyone who can complete the paragraph above with some or all of the following information:

a) which software / website you used...
b) what data was used, and where it came from...
c) what the output was, and what questions it was used to answer...
d) year group

Will share the collaborative resource that emerges from this, along with the materials I am just completing for a session I am involved in next week in Manchester.

I shall define GIS here as using a base map, plus data to answer a question or carry out an enquiry...

A reminder of the new GIS area of the GA's website for those who may not have seen it:
http://www.geography.org.uk/resources/gisstartshere/

I'll start....

The last time I used GIS in my classroom, I used Google Earth, and added polygons to represent the results of a field trip looking at possible suitable locations for a sustainable community project, with a Year 10 GCSE group doing the OCR Pilot GCSE.

Thanks in advance...
Alternatively, please add a comment to my Wallwisher wall: http://wallwisher.com/wall/gisideas

[Victoria]

...used the Montserrat Hazard Map (via Juicy Geography) and the "Geographic Web" layer in Google Earth to explore Montserrat with Year 9 in preparation for them planning the reconstruction of the island after the 1997 eruption.

[Alan Parkinson]

Thanks Victoria - exactly what I was after...

[Blue Square Thing]

The last time I used GIS in my classroom, I used Google Earth to measure distances between places using the basic data set AND to find images from panaoramia (?) mainly to use in the intro for GCSE coursework AND to get ideas about impacts of tourism on a place with a Year 10 GCSE group.

Probably. I might have used it this term as well to find images of the local area, but I think that was mainly geograph.

Which makes me think geograph is prolly a GIS in many ways. So I used that to get copyright freeish images with Yr 10 and 11 DiDA groups for their SPB.

[Graham]

The last time I used GIS in my classroom, I used Google Earth, and added  bar charts via GE graphs to represent the results of a field trip looking at the changes in river characteristics (e.g. width, depth, velocity) downstream on the River Tillingbourne (collected at the Juniper Hall Field Studies Centre) with a Year 12 AS Level group preparing for the AQA Unit 2 Skills Paper in January.

[Paul]

... I used the following three kmls in Google earth:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/virtualtour/kml/Earths_Tectonic_Plates.kmz
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/catalogs/eqs7day-age.kmz
http://gelessons.com/kmzfiles/gvp_layer.kmz
 
Year 9's investigated the relationship between the location of earthquakes and volcanoes by producing 4 screen dumps from GE in MS word of locations with:

1/ Plate boundaries with earthquakes only
2/ Plate boundaries with volcanoes only
3/ Plate boundaries with both e & v
4/ Locations of earthquakes or volcanoes not close to plate boundaries.

Pupils then described and explained each pattern.

Paul

[Alan Parkinson]

Thanks Paul...
Anyone use anything other than Google Earth

[Paul]

We would use digital worlds if our IT technicians could actually work out how to put it on the system!
P

[Judith R]

My tutor group put placemarksinto Google Earth for our 'Where's Santa hidden the presents' stall for the Xmas fair.

[edge]

Did exactly the same as Graham at the Rhyd-y-creuau FSC centre in Snowdonia.

[Tom Biebrach]

Plenty of other examples, but this was the most recent:

a) which software / website you used...

http://www.statssa.gov.za/census2001/digiAtlas/index.html (Idea from textbook CD Rom)

b) what data was used, and where it came from...

Census data about access to water etc in a rural province (Limpopo), compared to more urban province (Gauteng) - creating tables and choropleth maps.

c) what the output was, and what questions it was used to answer...

Studnets carried out an investigation into why peoople were migrating from rural to urban places (push and pull factors). Paired research and individual write ups including maps/graphs.

d) year group - Year 10

[David Rogers]

Used Google Earth with year 10 to measure the mouth of the Amazon. Then compared the distance to the Solent.

Then used GE to look for land use evidence and produce annotated exam sketches of river features.

[Alan Parkinson]

Thanks for all the responses so far - please keep them coming...

[Bob Lang]

hi Alan,
this idea is good for the GA new GIS site via GA ICTWG ideas page, see minutes from nov 14th meeting.
In response to your questions:

the last time i used it was Friday morning
 hull uni holderness site to look at past erosion rate and then  with google earth to look at future erosion worked out from first site over next 10, 50, 100 years with a year 11 student who is looking at erosion of east coast for issues coursework.

a) which software / website you used...
b) what data was used, and where it came from...
c) what the output was, and what questions it was used to answer...
d) year group


Use of gis in general, well you know a lot, the last 3 wednesday have been gis cpd delivery!
regards
bob

[Alan Parkinson]

Thanks Bob - presume it was this site that you used ? : http://www.hull.ac.uk/erosion/