[OSGeo-Edu] Material for Elementary and Secondary Schools

[Charlie Schweik]

Hi OSGeo edu folks,

FIRST - welcome Paul to the group! And I'd like to remind everyone to
try and recruit new members... the more people we have involved the
better!

SECOND - this thread that Paul started made me wonder to what degree we
had listed any educational content on our current content inventory
page: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Educational_Content_Inventory

Note that for the material listed we have a metatag "Target Audience".
But current entries are not consistent. 

MY REQUESTS:

1) PEOPLE WITH ENTRIES ON THE WIKI PAGE, PLEASE REVISIT THEM AND UPDATE
YOUR "TARGET AUDIENCE" METADATA. Please use these categories: K-12;
undergraduate; graduate; mid-career; other (please specify)

And, this is an excellent opportunity to take a moment and revise your
entry if you've made further progress.

2) K-12 INVENTORY - A NEW OSGEO EDU PROJECT INITIATIVE? CAN I GET A
VOLUNTEER TO LEAD THIS SUB-PROJECT?

My quick look at the list suggests that we don't have much targeting
K-12. I see one (Introduction to the Event Visualization Tool (eVis) -
entered by Kevin Koy).

Does anyone want to take the lead at trying to inventory what's been
done on our wiki related specifically to K-12 education?

Cheers,

Charlie Schweik (OSGeo edu committee co-chair)



On Tue, 2008-04-01 at 22:33 -0400, Helena Mitasova wrote:
> Paul,
> 
> although my focus is graduate level education I have done some work  
> with 4th graders few years ago.
> We have prepared some on-line material for them to work with and the  
> teachers could then go back
> and use the material more extensively in the class later. Here is the  
> web site with some of the material
> that we have used (this was before Google earth was launched so now  
> so much more is available!)
> 
> http://skagit.meas.ncsu.edu/~helena/classwork/kidswebgis.html
> 
> Kids just loved it and we always had a great time, so I would start  
> building the material using the internet
> resources - kids are so used to work with browser that they can  
> figure out and explore a lot all by themselves.
> The biggest problem is really to find a good sequence of material  
> that will allow teaching the material
> in a systematic and interesting way,
> 
> Helena
> 
> 
> Helena Mitasova
> Associate Professor
> Department of Marine, Earth
> and Atmospheric Sciences
> 1125 Jordan Hall, Campus Box 8208
> North Carolina State University
> Raleigh NC 27695-8208
> http://skagit.meas.ncsu.edu/~helena/
> 
> 
> 
> On Apr 1, 2008, at 8:36 PM, Paul Flemming wrote:
> 
> > Hi all,
> >
> >
> >
> > I am looking at developing material to introduce GIS and Mapping  
> > for Students in Elementary and Secondary schools.  One of the  
> > things I have noticed in the material that has been developed is  
> > that it is geared more for university and college students.  One of  
> > the areas that needs to be developed is teaching materials for  
> > elementary and secondary school teachers.  In the future there is  
> > going to be a lack of people in the GIS community with the proper  
> > background in mapping and GIS.  If we introduce these concepts at  
> > an earlier age then a greater interest in this technology will  
> > develop in later years.  If anyone has any suggestions or comments  
> > please speak up.
> >
> >
> >
> > Paul Flemming
> > CAD/GIS/IT Manager
> >
> >
> >
> > Decommissioning Consulting Services Limited
> > 121 Granton Drive, Unit 11
> > Richmond Hill, Ontario
> > Canada L4B 3N4
> > Tel: (905) 882-5984
> > Fax: (905) 882-8962
> > Email Address: pflemming at dcsltd.ca
> > Web Site: http://www.dcsltd.ca
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Edu_discuss mailing list
> > Edu_discuss at lists.osgeo.org
> > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/edu_discuss
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Edu_discuss mailing list
> Edu_discuss at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/edu_discuss
-- 
Associate Professor 
- Department of Natural Resources Conservation (www.umass.edu/nrc) 
- Center for Public Policy and Administration (www.masspolicy.org),
- Associate Director, National Center for Digital Government (www.ncdg.org)
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003
Phone: (413) 545-1824
Website: http://people.umass.edu/cschweik