I am a retired hydrogeologist from the environmental consulting industry and a recently retired science teacher from a local Long Island Middle School. I am passionate about helping school districts integrate GIS into their curriculum and to obtain their K12 School Bundle org accounts. It has been a frustrating experience and I certainly understand it from the teacher's perspective that trying something new like GIS to help teach their lessons, is just one more thing to do, with already too little time to do what they already have to do..
I am posting this to see if there are any K12 teachers that are using GIS in their classrooms to "upgrade" their lessons, or professionals that have been involved with their local school districts helping them with the technology.
If so, I'd love to hear from you.
Hello Robert! We have many teachers in WV that use GIS to "upgrade" their lessons. When I was still in the classroom, I used it all the time in a number of ways. You can see some of the ideas and supports that we offer WV teachers on this site: https://wvde.us/middle-secondary-learning/gis/
Please let me know if I can help in any way or if you want to chat. - Erika
Yes, Erika. I'd love to chat with you soon.
My email is: bobmozer@gmail.com
Please send me an email and I will provie you with my contact info.
Thanks so much for responding to my post.
Regards,
Bob
I'll reach out, Bob!
Bob - Joseph Kerski here on the Esri education team. We do this in many ways - curriculum development, presentations in and out of conferences to professional development for educators, making sure they have easy access to tools, the community, and GIS software, in advisory capacities, and in other ways. But we cannot do it alone and hence we need passionate experts such as yourself. There is a long history of GIS professionals aiding educators from our longstanding geomentoring program, from URISA, GIS Corps, and informally in many channels. Thanks for your many efforts and let me/my team know how we can assist you! --Joseph K
Hi Robert,
I have been using ESRI's GeoInquiries for the past year or so with 9th-12th grade social studies students (American government, AP Human Geography). My colleagues have also implemented them in US and World History. I find them to be a really powerful tool for highlighting certain concepts. This year, my AP students will be doing a little more substantive work with the bundle for schools. I'd be happy to discuss more.