New
I’m trying something a bit new. For over a decade now I have spent time in my retirement developing In Time & Place (www.intimeandplace.org), collections of resources for topics in American history that incorporate GIS. They have been used over the years by tens of thousands of students, teachers, and interested persons - primarily in the US, but in western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Indonesia as well.
The release last year of ESRI’s GeoInquiries in math inspired me to remind myself that I had been a math teacher for thirty years in addition to teaching social studies and that one of my primary goals was to develop fluency in the language of mathematics. That meant not just developing student skill in the vocabulary and rules of math in the abstract, but developing the ability to apply in the context of real world problems. I developed numbers of units over the years to this end, many of which are geographically related. I plan on sharing these lessons on a new web site called Math Apps (www.intimeandplace.org/Math ). The first three lessons are ready to go:
The content is primarily mathematics, but each unit incorporates social studies content as well. Each contains specific instruction in math content along with interactive graphics and GIS tools and activities. They are not meant to provide stand alone instruction in each content topic; rather, to supplement more traditional textbook and classroom presentation - to develop fluency.
Some of you are no doubt science and math teachers and can make direct use of these lessons in your classrooms. For others, please take a look and share with colleagues.
Enjoy,
Rick Thomas
T3G-2011
