INCORPORATING GIS INTO A TRADITIONAL GEOSCIENCES CURRICULUM

The Hamilton College Department of Geosciences recognized the need for adding GIS skills to the curriculum but lacked the faculty to teach a dedicated GIS course. We designed a GIS-across-the-curriculum approach to address the GIS needs in the curriculum.

GIS modules designed to be incorporated into intro and upper level courses within the department are helping to meet these goals. Modules are designed to build on skills learned in previous modules and develop progressive expertise by increasing complexity and adding new skill sets. Modules are integrated to the problem-solving activities of the courses and are not simply GIS for GIS sake.

The core tutorial is a multi-part set of exercises that focuses on skills related to use of GIS software in the geosciences. Completion of the exercises is considered a base level of GIS knowledge for students entering the suite of core courses for the major. A one-day workshop is offered to bring students up to speed at the beginning of each semester. The initial exercise works with data associated with Mt. St. Helens and is designed to get the students using ArcMap as quickly as possible for solving a problem without the complexity of discussions of datums, coordinate systems and file management. Students work with DEMs , hillshades and 3D scenes in ArcScene. This exercise is followed by three additional exercises of increasing complexity working with DEMs, DRGs, shape files (point, line and polygon) and attribute tables. Datums, coordinate systems and file management are all addressed in these additional exercises.

Some faculty are using course-specific exercises within their intro courses to build additional skills that go beyond the intro tutorial. These include using SRTM DEMs and LANDSAT imagery to examine water management strategies in the Nile River basin and local DEMs, DRGs and soil maps in conjunction with local weather data to model runoff. Course-specific exercises allow students to learn multiple aspects of GIS without each faculty member having to become expert in the full depth of the software. Developing creative exercises takes time, and data must be thoroughly examined and tested to avoid problems.