2016 Intermountain GIS Conference

Why the geographic perspective and geospatial technologies are critical to 21st century education and society.  Five converging global trends – geo-awareness, geo-enablement, geotechnologies, citizen science, and storytelling – offer opportunity for geographic content, skills, and perspectives to be taught in Colleges/Schools of Business. Curriculum focused on managing supply chains, selecting optimal retail sites, analyzing target markets, assessing risk, and other content taught in Schools of Business and through online courses including MOOCs can be enriched through GIS and the geographic perspective. Join Geographer Joseph Kerski as we discuss these societal and educational trends, why they matter, and why ignoring them would be like “sleepwalking into the future.”

Joseph Kerski will discuss trends and highlights in GIS in primary, secondary, university, and informal education around the world and in the USA, addressing the challenges that remain and the success stories that bring great optimism for the future.

Diane Papineau will discuss the MAGIP GIS Mentoring program, fostering peer-to-peer and classic career mentoring for members of MAGIP (GIS professionals, those entering profession, and other specialists who use GIS for their work).

Gerry Daumiller will discuss MAGIP scholarship and grant programs and how MAGIP promotes the exchange of geographic information technology to K-12 schools, colleges, universities and the public.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are used within a wide variety of professional communities to solve a vast range of spatial questions. While the complexity of these systems has historically limited their use to specialists, today just about everyone uses GIS. Examples ranging from onboard car and cell phone navigation systems to google maps and the daily weather forecast highlight how prevalent the technology has become in our day-to-day lives and demonstrate the ability of the technology to convey information quickly and efficiently. Despite the prevalence of GIS and its ability to answer questions and convey information, few K-12 schools teach or use GIS as a teaching tool.
As a teaching tool, GIS can be used to not only teach basic geography but can aid and enhance skills in reading, writing, math, science, problem solving, public speaking, computers, spatial thinking, data manipulation, and computer programming. At Frenchtown Elementary we have embarked on a project that uses GIS to aid in teaching. Through a detailed lesson plan and multiple exercises that use a GIS to answer spatial questions, students learn problem solving skills and how those skills can be used to find treasure in the treasure state.
Come join us on our treasure hunt as our students show their findings! Over the course of the project they have used GIS to map locations of gold mines in the 9 Mile Watershed, and they have created predictive maps of undiscovered gold using resource layers such as streams, vegetation types, and elevation. Along the way they have learned about the different methods that were historically used to extract gold, discuss whether or not those methods used 150 years ago still have an effect on water quality today, and have designed a spatially explicit science experiment to test this question. Their study design includes sampling water quality upstream and downstream of 3 gold mine sites in the 9 Mile Watershed. To get to those locations they will try out their newly honed orienteering skills using traditional compass and pacing and will learn about GPS technology. While navigating to their sample sites they will learn about map accuracy and determine the accuracy of their “Map of Undiscovered Gold” by panning for gold. Back in the classroom, students will be testing their water samples, evaluating the results, and determining whether or not heavy metals are still present in the 9 Mile Watershed. Through facilitated experiments and discussion, they are “discovering” that the greatest treasures in the Treasure State include not only shiny minerals like gold but also resources like clean water.

Students will present their project for the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Competition. The project involves using STEM to solve a problem in the community. They are the state winners and have submitted a video for the national competition.

Bigfork students are not taught GIS by traditional methods in which they develop skills they will later use on a project. They start with a project and then develop the skills they need. Furthermore, most student projects are conducted in partnership with a local agency or organization such as the US Forest Service or National Park Service. Often times the project tackles a task the agency doesn’t have budget or staff to undertake. These projects provide the partnering agency with data and analysis that will help them make decisions to better manage natural resources. Students are highly motivated by this approach in which they are actually doing something "real". Students will present a few past and ongoing projects and the wonders, and challenges of the program and its unusual approach will be discussed.