Background

 

   Geospatialmedia type="custom" key="8327066"" technologies--which include geographic information system (GIS), global positioning system (GPS), and remote sensing (RS) tools--are becoming increasingly important in our everyday lives. These technologies use "smart" maps that can display, query, and analyze geographic databases; receivers that provide location and navigation; and global-to-local imagery and tools that provide context and analysis.

As these tools become vital to helping community leaders ask and answer questions with both local and global implications, the ability to think spatially is an increasingly important skill for students. Hundreds of jobs--in such areas as planning, law enforcement, environmental management, business, public safety, health, and agriculture--now require key geographic inquiry skills.

Though GIS technology appears in the National Geography Standards, teachers in earth, environmental, biological, and general science also are incorporating geospatial technologies into their lessons. The growing use of these tools in an array of social studies and STEM subjects supports authentic, problem-based instruction, helping students tackle real social and environmental research projects in their communities. Clearly, finding ways to help our student be prepared for their future in the 21st century requires new methods and tools. Our grant proposal for the 2009 - 2010 school year would be to fund hardware resources to support the student understanding and the development of geospatial problem solving skills. GPS, global positioning systems, and netbooks are essential tools for addressing these increasingly complex skills. My target beneficiaries would include identified gifted student from kindergarten through sixth grade and other regular education students where the projects are part of push-in support or a result of regular education teachers’ engagement with the projects with groups of students or their whole class. My plan will be to use these technology devices throughout the 2009 - 2010 school year through the implementation of projects and activities aligned with students’ GIEP goals, grade level curriculum and state standards. media type="youtube" key="X_fZuYO8_X4" height="385" width="480" align="center"

GRANT
Through funds received from the [|Owen J. Roberts Education Foundation] and the PAECT/Keystones Geocaching Grant, we were able to purchase GPS units, with cases and two Netbooks.