Why Use GIS?
Schools across Australia are using GIS in a variety of creative ways to support their students in the classroom.
Geography teachers are analysing habitat loss over time, biology teachers are collecting data on water quality in a local catchment and economics teachers are using GIS to display census data. These are just a few small examples that illustrate the power of GIS to support your students' learning and engage them in the classroom.
GIS is naturally suited to examining local issues and solving local problems using data that has been collected locally. However, there are also a range of lessons that have been developed by ESRI Australia that allow your students to examine regions across the planet in a way they could have never done before.
GIS has many benefits to education and not just in the traditional realms of geography and the social sciences.
GIS:
- allows your students to develop their spatial literacy
- enhances your area of study by engaging your students in the classroom
- lets you and your students examine and solve local problems using local data
- gives your students opportunities to develop their IT skills in a meaningful way
- provide your students with access to IT skills that are currently highly desireable across the country
You can contact the GIS in Schools coordinator for more information on your GIS program and ESRI Australia's lessons for Australian teachers.