ArcGIS Online – For Educators Who Want to Know

Guest Blogger: Wayne Fritch

Home School Instruction, Cedar Rapids Community School District​

(Photo captured from: https://www.esri.com/en-us/maps-we-love/gallery/election-2016-dot-density)

Every newspaper you open these days has a map with an informational overlay. These maps allow the reader to quickly make some analytical observations regarding a wide variety of topics, such as population density, average temperatures, wealth or poverty, migration of various animals, crime rates, traffic fatalities, etc. The same information could be displayed in a spreadsheet, but this would throw most of us into analysis paralysis with the overwhelming amount of numbers. Visualizing quantities of data in a geographic manner puts context to the data and simplifies the analysis process. Question: Who creates these kinds of maps and how are they created? Answer: They are created by people who know GIS—Geographic Information Systems and are created with a unique kind of mapping software. ArcGIS Online is powerful mapping tool which can be used by students, teachers, and professionals alike.  Educators in the USA can complete a single page application to gain access to a free school, district, or state account. The account is robust and online--no downloading of software or worrying about software licensing.

Teachers can find tutorials for learning this program and lesson plans for teaching mapping skills that cross all curricular areas for grades 4 – 12. A set of GeoInquires, teaching plans, reach into the core content areas of American Literature, Earth Science, Environmental Science, Government, Human Geography, Mathematics, US History, and World History. In addition, there are over 100 free lessons to help newbies get GIS into the classroom.

In addition to lesson plans, ArcGIS offers GeoMentor support to teachers. GeoMentors are volunteers who work in the field of geospatial technologies and have signed up to assist teachers in implementing ArcGIS with students. Teachers seeking support should visit the GeoMentor website, where they can search for a GeoMentor in their area. GeoMentors can also be found by contacting your city or county Informational Technology Department and/or the Department of Natural Resources.  Mentors bring a depth of understanding to the content and have personal stories to share that engage student interest. Having these local experts in the classroom lends itself nicely to career awareness opportunities.

ArcGIS provides an amazing application called Story Mapping. It is a powerful and informative presentation tool that rivals Power Point and Prezi. This tool can be used for a multitude of writing and publishing projects. It allows for the combining of text, Internet photos, video, camera images, all of which are geo-referenced to a specific location on a map. To see how engaging these Story Maps can be take a look at this Story Map Gallery. To learn how to create your own Story Map use this tutorial.

Students across the state of Iowa are encouraged to participate in an annual Mapping Competition. Winning students win $100 and get a write up in the Des Moines Register and their local newspaper. Selected winners compete for a national prize.

To see a couple of story maps created by my 8th grade students, you can view the map that won the 2018 State Mapping Contest in Middle School or a map was created after a student’s vacation to Disney World and the Soarn’ Virtual Reality Exhibit.

ArcGIS Online has tremendous applications for education! It can be used across the curriculum as a data collection tool, presentation software, or for writing and storytelling. It integrates math concepts, critical thinking, decision making, graphics and layout, technical skills, persuasive and informative writing, geography, and literature ties.

If this article has piqued your interest and you want a try out ArcGIS Online for yourself, download this PDF and try the 5 X 5 introductory tutorial. There is no login required. This document will walk you through 5 activities that can be done in less than 5 minutes each.  However, you will become so engrossed in the learning that 15 minutes will pass as though it was five.

Backstory: While  participating in a summer Teacher STEM Externship, I was assigned  to create a map of wildlife habitat of Johnson County Iowa. My source, or base-map, was a 100 year-old hand-drawn map created by U of I professor.  I was placing an overlay of symbols to represent an assortment of trees and brush—wildlife habitat. When my part of the project was complete, the GIS specialists over-laid the map with other layers from more recent years. The final layer being data collected by LIDAR fly-overs. Through manipulation of the map layers one could determine which areas of the county had been left untouched by human activity through the previous century. The Johnson County Board of Conservation was interested in this these areas for future conservation efforts. By learning a few basics of the mapping tool, and developing a network of DNR and GIS specialists, I was excited and equipped to return to the classroom and have my Middle School students begin learning this technology. I invited local experts from the Cedar Rapids Informational Technology Department into my classroom to serve as GeoMentors. They implemented several of the lessons provided in the GeoInquires as well as helped a group of students take waypoints with hand-help GPS units at a local mountain biking park and display these points on a map.