Using GPS and GIS in Education

Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies are emerging at a rapid rate and are being integrated into K-12 classrooms worldwide.

Gorny, Gorny, Kazelas, and Przyzycki (2005) state that Global Positioning System or GPS determines the position, the latitude and the longitude of landmarks, or waypoints (areas on water).  It is used to find landmarks or way points when latitude and longitude degrees are given.  GPS also allows you to work with tracks.  Tracks are like breadcrumbs, which are points that a GPS device plots along the path where it has traveled.  A GPS device can also record speed, direction and time related to an activity.  Why are teachers integrating GPS into teaching and learning?  Gorny et al. found that they are using it to create meaningful, learning activities for K-12 students in the areas of mathematics, science, language arts, social studies, and in contexts of problem-based learning with authentic assessment.  Gorny et al. provided the following list of educational applications and innovative research projects that have been conducted by teachers and students using GPS: water quality, landscape features, wildlife population, crime investigation, school mapping, community studies, weather studies, tree inventory, bus routing, cemetery studies, historic sites, census data, and archeological features.  Gorny et al. also state that GPS and GIS are being used in higher education and in research to find patterns in drug arrests, study forest rehabilitation, improve crop production, define urban empowerment zones, facilitate historic preservation, develop plans to control toxic waste spills, and much more. 

GIS is a system designed for storing, updating, analyzing, displaying, and manipulating spatial information about places on the planet.  GIS uses the computer to answer questions by arranging and displaying various data about places in a variety of ways, such as maps, tables and charts.  Gorny et al. (2005) state that GIS operates from data and information that are stored as a collection of thematic layers. The main layers of GIS are points (towns, cities, state capitals, trees, fire hydrants, stop lights, GPS points, landmarks, breadcrumbs), lines (highways, rivers, fault lines, boundaries, railroads, utilities), and areas (states, forests, mountain ranges, lakes, land use, school districts, and soil types).  Why use GIS in education?  GIS offers the opportunity for many interdisciplinary projects, allows a location or series of locations to be explored or related to the curriculum, and helps the students explore many different aspects of social studies, mathematics, science, language arts, and other curriculum (Environmental Systems Research Institute, 2004). GIS can be used at the elementary level to introduce maps, identify places and locations, and explore significant features of geography (ESRI, 2004).  It can be used in middle school to conduct studies of regions, perform mathematical relations and data, examine relationships of phenomena across space, begin cross-discipline studies, and explore global relationships and features (ESRI, 2004).  GIS can be used in high school classrooms to expand the study of regions and characteristics, market research applications of GIS, test theories of geographic patterns, conduct urban planning and community projects, and analyze global demographics and natural changes over time (ESRI, 2004). 

In summary, the use of GPS and GIS together is like comparing it to a cake and the icing on the cake.  GIS is the cake and GPS is the icing on the cake.  GIS is many different layered themes (i.e., map of streets, map of elevation, map of landmarks, map of rivers, etc.) and you can then import the GPS data into the GIS software to plot the points on top of the maps (acting as the icing on the cake). 

For more information on finding useful links, lesson plans, and classroom resources and ideas that you can use with your projects, visit the GIS2GPS web site at:  http://www.gis2gps.com.

References

Gorny, E., Gorny, N., Kazelas, D., & Przyzycki, C.  (2005, April). GPS – A Powerful Hands-On Tool for Students in the 21st Century.  PowerPoint handout presented at the GIS2GPS Conference, Springfield, IL.

Gorny, E., Gorny, N., Kazelas, D., & Przyzycki, C.  (2005, April).  Geographic Information System GIS – One of the Best Kept Secrets in Technology for the 21st Century.  PowerPoint handout presented at the GIS2GPS Conference, Springfield, IL. 

Environmental Systems Research Institute.  (2004).  GIS for K-12 Education: Solutions for Students and Teachers.  [Brochure].  Redlands, CA:  Author.

Environmental Systems Research Institute.  (2004).  GIS for Higher Education: Across the Campus and Around the World.  [Brochure].  Redlands, CA:  Author.

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