MAPS – GIS Activities
This page provides short descriptions of the outreach activities and presentations of the MAPS GIS project
High School Connections: Hands on Career Day - Eugene, OR - April 2009
Maps-GIS provided a one-hour workshop for high school students. The workshop activities include a 5 minute video "The Geospatial Revolution," a short PowerPoint presentation, and time to explore the MAPS-GIS Web-based tutorial.
Workforce Training and Community Resources Fair - Eugene, OR - April 2009
MAPS-GIS hosted an information table at the resources fair. The fair focused on providing career-path information for local workers who have been laid-off or people who are facing unemployment. Over 40 people stopped by our table to get information about our program and to view current student work.
Lane Community College Day - Salem, OR- April 2009
Six students from the GIS 248 Applied Projects class spent the day in Salem, Oregon. We hosted an informal poster sessions showing projects created during the winter Introduction to GIS class‚ GIS 246. The goal was to help legislators understand the importance of geospatial technology and the valuable role community colleges play in work-force training.
Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting - Las Vegas, NV -March 2009
Teaching Geospatial Thinking Across the Curriculum
Paper Session: Emerging Uses on Technology in K-12 Geography Education, Sponsored by Geography Education Specialty Group
Presenter: Lynn Songer
The need for students to think geospatially and use geospatial technologies is becoming more critical as these tools and concepts are increasingly incorporated into a broad range of occupations and academic disciplines. MAPS-GIS, a project funded by NSF-ATE, uses Web-based GIS to embed data-rich lessons across the college curriculum. These lessons promote critical thinking and problems-solving skills as students explore data using Boolean Logic queries, create spatial buffers, and describe and evaluate spatial patterns and correlations. The lessons developed by MAPS-GIS are being adapted and used by middle and high school teachers in their curriculum as an analytic tool. This has the potential to teach important spatial skills and data literacy concepts as seen in other K-12 cross-curricular methodologies, such as Reading Across the Curriculum and Writing Across the Curriculum.
Oregon Geographic Alliance - Monmouth, OR - March 2009
Geospatial Technology Across the Curriculum - Workshop
Presenter: Lynn Songer
MAPS-GIS offered two workshops to help teachers learn to use Web-based GIS across the K-12 curriculum. Eighteen in-service and pre-service teachers participated in the workshops. This year the OGA summer institute will feature a full day workshop dedicated to using geospatial technologies to teach the geography of Oregon.
Lane Preview Night - Eugene, OR - March 2009
Present: Jane Benjamin and Lynn Songer
Informal talk with in-coming high school students for Lane's Preview night
Talented and Gifted Professional Development - Portland, OR -November 2008
Using MAPS-GIS Web-based GIS in the K-12 Classroom.
Presenter: Lynn Songer
This is a three-hour professional development opportunity for middle and high school teachers. In this workshop you will learn how about Web-based GIS options to traditional Desktop GIS for in-class use. This workshop emphasizes how to address the Oregon standards related to GIS use for 8th grade and above.
American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Technical Exchange - Portland, OR - October 2008
Creating a spatially literate workforce using web based GIS as a teaching tool
Presenter: Eric Sproles
An increasing number of fields are adopting GIS to enable visual/spatial representations of data, solve spatial problems,and combine quantitative data with qualitative analysis. However, most students are not introduced to these skills until upper division GIS-specific coursework. As a result many basic GIS tasks are performed by personnel with little training in spatial data or GIS. Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon has developed web based GIS lessons for Science and Social Science curriculum to improve spatial literacy and provide a solid foundation in geo-spatial principles. Introduced are quantitative and qualitative results assessing the influence of web based GIS lessons on students across a multi-disciplinary curriculum. Survey tests designed to evaluate student's self-efficacy and spatial literacy were administered before and after module implementation for courses in multiple disciplines. This paper will discuss these findings and anecdotal insights into the effectiveness of modules and how these modules affect students' perceptions of GIS.
National Science Foundation PI Conference - Washington, D.C. - October 2008
Present: Jane Benjamin, Lynn Songer, Ben Greiger (GIS student)
Showcase of the MAPS-GIS four-course sequence and the embedded Web-based GIS modules. Ben presented the work he has done for Willamalane Parks and Recreation.
ESRI User's Education Conference - San Diego, CA - August 2008
Improving self-efficacy and spatial literacy using Web-based GIS
Presenters: Eric Sproles, Lynn Songer
Introduced are quantitative and qualitative results assessing the influence of web based GIS lessons on students across a multi-disciplinary curriculum. Survey tests designed to evaluate student's self-efficacy and spatial literacy were administered before and after module implementation for courses in multiple disciplines. This paper will discuss these findings. Anecdotal insights into the effectiveness of modules, student's comments, and strategies of how to engage students using GIS lessons will also be addressed.
International Conference on Geographical Information Systems - Istanbul, Turkey - July 2008
Lessons Learned in Implementing Web-based GIS across the Curriculum - workshop
Presenters: Lynn Songer, Eric Sproles
Abstract: We will demonstrate how teachers in elementary, middle and high schools are using the power of GIS to teach important geospatial concepts and reinforce geographic problem-solving without the expense or time of developing a fully functional GIS program. We will introduce several lessons developed and tested by pre-service teachers. Workshop participants will explore several lessons then work in teams to adapt excising web-based GIS maps and lessons for use in their classes. The workshop will conclude with teachers sharing their lesson design and ideas. This workshop is appropriate for teachers with little or no GIS experience and for teacher with access to the internet by who do not have the time or infrastructure to develop GIS classes. For the more experienced GIS users, we will provide information about designing and hosting your own Web-based maps.
Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting - Boston, MA - April 2008
Geographic Literacy and GIS Education - Panel Discussion
Sponsorship: Geography Education Specialty Group
Organizers: Rich Schultz - Elmhurst College; Lynn Songer - Lane Community College
Chair: Lynn Songer
Panelists: Ming-Hsiang Tsou - San Diego State University; Lynn Songer - Lane Community College; Rich Schultz - Elmhurst College; Joseph J. Kerski - ESRI; David DiBiase - Penn State University; Eric Sproles - Lane Community College
The session is designed to present a variety of topics and a range of GIS applications in physical and human geography. The illumination of issues impeding GIS use in education, promoting successful implementation of GIS to advance geographic literacy, and any other associated issues are appropriate. An associated paper session will precede this subsequent panel discussion on the topics.
Community College League of Innovation - Denver, CO - March 2008
Round Table: Problem Solving Across the Curriculum Using GIS Technology
Presenters: Jane Benjamin and Lynn Songer
GIS Day - Eugene, OR - Novmeber 2007
A 2007 GIS Day Celebrtion was held at Lane's Campus. GIS students organized a geocaching event. Prize drawing for 2006 Goode's Atlases were held thropughtout the day.
Partricipants: Jane Benjamin, Eric Sproles, Lynn Songer
The Geography Faculty Development Alliance Workshops and Seminars for Early Career College and University Faculty - Boulder, CO - June 2007
Workshop presentation in using Web-based GIS across the college curriculum as a tool for geospatial skill building and course recruitment.
Presenter: Lynn Songer
ESRI User's Education Conference - San Diego, CA - June 2007
Developing ArcIMS Modules: Embedded GIS Instruction for Undergraduate Education
Presenter: Eric Sproles
Working in collaborative teams, instructors from multiple disciplines at Lane Community College, Eugene, Oregon, developed and tested embedded ArcIMS Internet-based GIS modules in physical geography, environmental science, oceanography, political science, and data visualization. This presentation will feature the final projects developed in the first year of the Mapping, Analyzing, and Problem Solving (MAPS) NSF-ATE grant, #0603492, to promote GIS literacy across the curriculum. Preliminary assessment results from instructor development teams and student users will be discussed and lessons learned from implementing Internet-GIS in the classroom will be presented.
Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting - San Francisco, CA - April 2007
Active and Problem-Based Learning (PBL): GIS and the Educator
Sponsorship: Geography Education Specialty Group & Geographic Information Science and Systems Specialty Group
Organizer & Chair: Arthur N. Samel - Bowling Green State University
Panelists: Joseph J. Kerski - ESRI; Rich B. Schultz - Elmhurst College; Dawn J. Wright - Oregon State University; Bruce W. Smith; Matthew Bampton - University Of Southern Maine; Cathleen McAnneny - University Of Maine at Farmington; Ann Johnson - ESRI; Eric Sproles - Lane Community College
Although GIS is taught at the majority of colleges and universities in the United States, its use in the K-12 classroom has been limited. This, however, is rapidly changing as state proficiency exams increasingly stress geographic standards. This has led to a increase in the number of educators who are learning GIS and using it in the classroom. GIS is utilized as a tool to present visually attractive materials to students. Students are also taught to use the software so that they can engage in more active and problem based learning (PBL) activities. The introduction of GIS to the K-12 curriculum presents tremendous opportunities and daunting obstacles. The emergence of a GIS literate population of high school graduates also presents a new set of opportunities to enhance the higher education GIS curriculum, including GIS Certificate Programs, Web-based or "online" GIS, Community college GIS programs, and methodologies used to teach GISystems and GIScience.
The purpose of this panel session is to bring together geography educators from all levels to discuss their experiences and share strategies for the effective integration of GIS into the curriculum. This session is the second in the "Active and Problem-Based Learning (PBL): GIS and the Educator" series and being sponsored by the Geography Education Specialty Group.
Oregon State University Geography Seminar Series - Corvallis, OR - May 2007
Where does the community college fit into the future of geo-spatial education?
Presenters: Sarah Ulerick and Eric Sproles
South Eugene High School Career Day - Eugene, OR - February 2007
Presenter: Eric Sproles
Informal talk with in-coming high school students for Lane's Preview night
GIS Day - Eugene, OR -November 2006
A 2006 GIS Day Celebration was held at Lane's Campus. Information about GIS, GIS programs and GIS careers was provided. Students participated in informal GIS awareness surveys and entered a drawing for prizes donated by the Lane Book Store and The Ren Room.