LESSONS LEARNED IN THE DESIGN OF GIS-BASED GEOSCIENCE INVESTIGATIONS

Geographic information systems are ideal for teaching topics in the geosciences and for helping students develop the skills for scientific problem solving. To incorporate more inquiry and to have students model the work of real scientists in our courses, we developed a series of GIS-based learning modules to investigate topics that are frequently addressed in Earth science courses: plate tectonics, tropical cyclones, oceanography, and water resources (scieds.com/saguaro.html). More recently, we have developed in depth case studies of recent natural disasters including the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the 2004 Sumatra earthquake and tsunami, the 1700 Orphan tsunami in Cascadia, and the Seattle Fault zone (scieds.com/cases/). Our research shows that when GIS-based investigations are properly designed, K-12 and college students can use the tool to ask scientific questions and explore multiple pathways for answering them. Our materials are designed to overcome the need for the instructor or student to have prior experience with a GIS to be successful in exploring a problem. The investigations, complete with GIS instructions and datasets, allow the students to focus on the scientific questions and to learn GIS as they progress through the problem. We call this Teaching with GIS rather than Teaching about GIS. We identified three design criteria that make the learning modules both engaging and educational for students. The first involves simplifying the tool. We have found that by streamlining, automating, or even eliminating multiple-step command sequences, students’ frustration is minimized, and their attention remains focused on the scientific problem rather than the software. Exploring concepts at global, regional, and local scales is also important for guiding student learning. The global perspective is powerful for teaching fundamental science concepts and driving forces behind Earth processes, while the regional and local scales provide opportunities for more detailed analysis of problems. The third design criteria for creating an effective GIS-based learning module involves tying science and society together as elements of an inter-related system. We will demonstrate, with examples, how we designed our curriculum around these guiding principals.