Ignite Student GIS Passion This School Year
As you head back to the classroom this fall, there are a variety of ways that you can empower students to learn with GIS & maps. GIS helps students learn data literacy, critical thinking + problem-solving skills, as well as spatial thinking and provides career readiness.
But how can you get started?
Esri provides free, ‘no login’ resources that can help! These include supportive teacher instructional materials, GIS tools/maps/data, and student subject-area activities.
Esri GeoInquiries
GeoInquiries™ are short, standards-based inquiry activities for teaching map-based content found in commonly used textbooks. Each activity is designed using a common inquiry model and can be presented quickly from a single computer and projector or modified for students’ hands-on engagement. Collections of 15–20 activities per topic enhance your curriculum throughout the year.
The best part? There are over 125+ pre-built lessons, maps, and student worksheets!
National Geographic MapMaker
National Geographic MapMaker allows you and your students to investigate the world using 2D and 3D maps. Explore with carefully curated and standards-based map content that supports your existing curriculum. MapMaker can also help you create your own maps and share them with your students. Some of the exciting features include:
- Hundreds of maps and data layers
- 2D and 3D maps
- Layer sliders, transparency, and data tables
- Simulated sun and weather
- Save a map to an image file
*P.S: Esri offers a free training course that introduces teachers to maps by using MapMaker.
StoryMaps for Schools
These activities are identified for use in schools by teachers and/or students. There are over 250+ curated ArcGIS StoryMaps organized by subject & grade band that are also searchable! Some of the StoryMaps include Student Readings, Student Projects, Puzzles, and Virtual Field Trips.
GeoProjects
Use pre-built investigations that follow the geographic inquiry cycle to study a problem, learn about data visualization, and help solve real-world problems. With one student or whole class, these free projects are web-based and easy to implement. The resources here are Ready-to-use, no-login, project-based learning with maps!
For additional teacher resources that you can utilize this school year, explore our Teachers webpage and sign up to receive our monthly newsletter.
