A MENTORING APPROACH TO TEACHING GIS: AN EXAMPLE INVOLVING HYDROGEOLOGY

The sophistication and applications of GIS continue to grow at a phenomenal rate. While an instructor can be an expert in the use of GIS software, the same instructor cannot be expected to be an expert in all fields that currently utilize GIS software. To facilitate the teaching of GIS applications across a broad spectrum of student interest and backgrounds, instructors may choose a mentoring approach. Mentoring may take many forms however; this example utilizes graduate students as project leaders that interact with undergraduates, the instructor, and an outside expert. If a class does not include graduate students then students with upper class standing or other suitable qualifications may be used as project leaders.

Our specific example involved the creation of a digital dataset for use in a larger hydrogeology project involving the author. For this reason, the author, a graduate student, was assigned to be the project leader. Various projects were explained to an applied GIS class, and two undergraduate students chose to work on the hydrogeology project. Once the team was assembled the project leader consulted an outside expert to determine the desired end products. The GIS instructor was consulted to determine what spatial data would be required to produce the desired products. During the creation of the final product, the team leader was in constant contact with all parties and oversaw the creation of the end products.