MIXED STRATEGIES TO TEACH GIS TO DIVERSE URBAN STUDENTS: LESSONS LEARNED AND STUDENT EXAMPLES

After much trial and error and attendance at a number of Cutting Edge professional development workshops – including participation in activities designed to increase understanding of best practices of teaching - the authors are becoming more effective at teaching GIS to urban underrepresented students in Brooklyn, New York and Jersey City, New Jersey. Because our campuses are so diverse, our students’ quantitative and communication skills vary greatly. Furthermore, their understanding of important spatial and geoscience concepts can be quite limited. For instance, a typical student’s exposure to maps and mapping may have been limited to a New York City subway map.

Our teaching strategies have evolved to a wide and variable mix, including: step-by-step guided lessons, group discussions, short activities, lectures, GPS field collection and GIS data integration, term research projects, and capstone research / service learning projects. By utilizing mixed strategies that help to make learning GIS relevant and fun, student interest in studying GIS-related topics is increasing at a significant rate. This has required both departments (Earth and Environmental Sciences at Brooklyn College and Geoscience / Geography at New Jersey City University) to expand GIS offerings in the Geosciences as well as other disciplines. These offerings include: stand-alone courses, modules within non-GIS courses, and a great variety of independent student projects. We will share lessons learned, examples of GIS independent and group activities, and most importantly, examples of student projects.