During the multi-year SEP, the NCGIA facilitated dialogue between interested parties; collected, developed, and reviewed GIS instructional materials; pooled information on current and pending GIS activities in the schools; communicated this information; and provided specific activities that increase teacher and student awareness of GIS and that encourage the development of appropriate GIS instructional materials for the schools.
One of the first activities of the SEP was a seven-day workshop at UCSB in 1992 in which high school science, social studies, and computer teachers from the Santa Barbara area received a short course and hands on activities in GIS and also helped review the potential for GIS in the classroom.
The following summer another group of teachers from seven states, all participants in the National Geographic Society network of state-based Geographic Alliances, came to UCSB for a week-long workshop on GIS use in the classroom. These teachers returned to their respective Alliances and gave a series of GIS in-services for teachers in their state.
These workshops precipitated the development of support resources
for teachers, including a Workshop
Resource Packet, an IDRISI-based
African Data Viewer, and a series of ArcView-based
Learning Modules
Many of the findings of the first years of the Secondary Education Project are disucssed in the former Edcuation Project Manager, Steve Palladino's, Masters thesis "A Role for Geographic Information Systems in the Secondary Schools: An Assessment of the Current Status and Future Possibilities"
In the second half of the decade, NCGIA SEP continued its activities which include the development of GIS-based learning modules. In 1996 NCGIA hosted a short meeting to develop a Research Agenda for K-12 GIS (EDGIS'96 research meeting).
As we approach the end of the decade, NCGIA has passed the baton on to other organization and individuals who are doing wonderful things with GIS in the schools. A few contacts are listed below.
Other K-12 GIS Web Sites
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