usa Understanding and Using GIS
"It is not just the visualization of a database that makes a GIS so powerful but its ability to combine multiple thematic layers for the purpose of answering complex questions.
" PASDA

Directions: Use the USGS GIS web site, GIS Tutorials, GIS Kids Slideshow..., the Internet
and resources available to you in the library to answer these questions.

Watch What is GIS?

1. What does the acronym GIS stand for?

 

2. What is GIS?

 

3. What can you do with GIS?

 

4. What are the tools for GIS?

 

5. Write three GIS questions about your community. GIS Touches All Our Lives, Everyday might be helpful

 

 

6. Pose a GIS question that relates to your school or school district.

 

 

7. How could GIS be used to make decisions about recreation facilities or programs in your local?

 

8. What impact could come from the EMMMA Project?

 

9. Which area in your state had the highest incidence of West Nile?

 

Based on these results, should your community spray against the disease this summer?

 

10. Check out these articles about students harnessing GIS to solve a problem,
"Bus Shelter Assessment and Mapping Project" or "Taking a Measure of Community".

Give an example of a GIS related project that teens could do in your community.

 

11. How is your local, regional or state government using GIS for planning?

 

 

12. Name three skills that are important to GIS workers.

 

 

Journey further in your explorations:

Technology reveals new worlds to map | Mapping out a new world order CNN

Watch City Buildings in Pictures David Pogue hitches a ride in A9's picture-taking, GPS-equipped S.U.V.

Listen and Watch, then consider:

* Google Street View Captures Boston in Controversial Detail

* Mapping Renewable Energy, Rooftop by Rooftop - Time, 12/22/08

* How Google Earth Ate Our Town | Google's Super Satellite Captures First Image

* PBS 39 - Career Gates - Technology online video

* Mapping underground rivers

Take Action:

GeoWeb - Be a cyber cartographer | The Genographic Project | Geocaching | Green Maps Around the World

Map local wetlands & riparian buffers - pbl | Tree Inventory and Map in your Community

Gap Analysis is a scientific means for assessing habitats & if native animal & plant species are being protected.

Critter Quest PA explore natural diversity using gis mapping | GIS in the classroom

Jobs related - The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that jobs for Surveyors, cartographers, photogrammetrists, and surveying technicians grew by 21% in 2006 Much faster than average growth. Increasing demand for fast, accurate, and complete geographic information is expected to lead to new jobs for these workers. These jobs are projected to grow by19 percent from 2008 to 2018.

Geoscientists jobs grew by 22% in 2006. Much faster than average growth. The need for energy, environmental protection, and land and water management is expected to spur growth. Those with a master’s degree should have excellent opportunities, especially in the management, scientific, and technical consulting industry. Budget constraints are expected to limit opportunities in governments.


Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered,
you will never grow.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Extras:

Learn more at The Guide to GIS web site GIS for Schools - Community Mapping free tools
Explore these Youth Groups GIS Project Remote Sensing: The View From Above

NatureMapping

GIS MAP book Gallery - explore
Google Maps Is Changing the Way We See the World Place based storytelling WOW
GeoWeb, Mapmaking for the masses - User generated cartography GIS use in a documentary- The Unforeseen GIS page
All the World's a Page PA Spatial Data Access GIS tutorial
The Revolutionaries Online Collaborations & Social Networking
Watch What is Digital? at Future Channels Cyberinfrastructure - examines the convergence of three realities -- the spread of the Internet, the shrinkage of computers, and the accumulation of databases
Cars - Individual Privacy, Public Safety and Justice
Read Oh La LOUD - Europe is using GIS to control sound pollution Water Studies - The Math of Sufficient Fresh Water
Health Issues and GIS - remarkable CDC info

The United States of Art - Public art in this interactive Google map

Geographic Inquiry: Thinking Geographically | The Riddle of the Russian Lights
Round Earth, Flat Maps | Dr. John Snow maps & Cholera | GIS and Historical Maps

In 2005, the Snyder County Commissioners notified the borough of Shamokin Dam's elected officials that they would have to change the names of 10 of their streets. Why?

The County was implementing GIS. In doing it, they discovered that there were streets in Shamokin Dam that had the same name as streets in the town of Selinsgrove (Located about 4 miles down the road.) Both Shamokin Dam and Selinsgrove had the same postal address name (Selinsgrove) and the same zip code 17870. For GIS purposes it was important that each street within a zip code have a unique name.

Rather than change the street names, the Shamokin Dam borough officials appealed to the U.S. Postal Service for a unique zip code and to be officially recognized by the USPS as Shamokin Dam. The request was granted.

Only a few Shamokin Dam residents had ever heard of GIS. Some were unhappy because they had to make notifications about the change in their address, just as if they had moved. There are many positives to the change including that delivery services and emergency services could more easily find addresses.

Duplicate road names must be eliminated in Point Township Daily Item 7/10/08

Internet Hunts / Nature / Computers / Puzzles & Projects / Pennsylvania Projects / Problem Based Learning / Home
All trademarks, copyright and logos belong to their respective owners.

2007 Cynthia J. O'Hora, Educators may print a hunt, exactly as it appears, for use in a classroom setting. Posted 1/11/2007

tree icon Save a tree - use a Digital Answer Format - Highlight the text. Copy it. Paste it in a word processing document. Save the document in your folder. Answer on the word processing document in a contrasting color (not yellow) or font (avoid Symbol, blackmore, brodfont dear or other ornate artistic fonts). Save frequently as you work. Enter your name and the date in a header. Submit the assignment via a class dropbox or an email attachment. Bad things happen. Save a copy of your document in your computer. Perhaps you have the resources to record verbal answers. If you do, be sure to first read / record the question. Then record the answer immediately after it. Make your own answer sheet

Tech Tip: Working in a group or in two different places like the library & home? You do not have to be physically together to work together. You do not have to take paper based notes at the library and digitalize them at home.
gold starWatch Google Docs video TAI - How could you use free, Google Docs to do a project? How would this facilitate group projects?