GeoMentors Case Study: Caleb H.: Geo-Club; 3rd Grade; Missouri
City/State of School, School District, or Group: Liberty Missouri, Liberty School District
Grade level of students you or your educator collaborator work/worked with (if applicable): 3rd Grade
Subject/topic of class/group you assisted your collaborator with: 3rd Grade Geo-Club. We used materials from ESRI Thinking Spatially
Approximately how many students were engaged in GIS activities through this collaboration: 6
How did you connect with your collaborator? I really feel that Geography and learning about people and place is extremely important and is way to often pushed to the side in today's public school system. My wife, who is a teacher at the school, agreed with my viewpoint and we thought this would be a great opportunity to get kids more involved with Geography.
Describe your collaboration process. We wanted to give it a try before we expanded. So for our first go, we met two times a week for a month. We met for 45 minutes a session. I looked through the lessons that ESRI provided and looked for a set of lessons that was appropriate for the age and that would be engaging for the kids.
Describe the tasks you assisted your collaborator with. I helped in all aspects of our endeavor. I assisted her with getting access from ESRI, getting the lessons, setting her administration rights up, and getting the kids set up.
What available resources, if any, did you use or help your collaborator use to implement GIS in K-12 education? Thinking Spatially using GIS. These materials were extremely helpful.
What did you gain from the experience? What do you think your educator collaborator and/or the students gained? I was amazed how well the kids took to the material and how engaged they were. I was extremely happy that there is a healthy appetite for Geography and exploring spatial data. The collaborator and I enjoyed the experience very much and got enough good feedback from the students that we plan on expanding the program next year.
Questions? Email geomentors@aag.org.