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Table of Contents
- VISIT
Awards Scholarships for GIS Institute in Boulder, CO
- Register
Now! for This Summer or Fall VISIT Online Courses
- Spring
and Summer FTF Workshops are Scheduled
- Teacher
Leaders Melissa Martin and Henrietta List Featured This
Issue
- VISIT
Teachers Investigate Local Community Demographics, Cancer
Rates,Infrastructure, Underground Railway, Roller Coasters,
and More
- A
Weekend Solution: GIS Teamwork in the Collaboratory
- VISIT
to Present at GIS Education Conference in July 2002
- National
Advisory Board Meeting Scheduled for July 7, 2002
- Colorado
School of Mines Offers Graduate Credit for VISIT Teachers
- About
the VISIT Program
1) VISIT Awards Scholarships for GIS Institute in Boulder,
CO
Margaret
Shaw Chernosky, teacher at Bangor High School in Bangor, Maine,
and Brad Tracy, teacher at Wissahickon High School, Ambler,
Pennsylvania, each received a $700 scholarship from the VISIT
project to participate in a five-day GIS Institute for Educators
in Boulder, Colorado in June 2002. The institute is sponsored
by the Colorado Geographic Alliance and GIS ETC. Joseph Kerski
and Steve Wanner, VISIT Teacher Leaders, will be two of the
instructors. Chernosky is conducting a geospatial analysis
of the inquiry, "Are Global Prosperity and Ecological Sustainability
Possible?" Tracy is developing a new class on population,
demographics, and physical geography. At the Institute, teachers
will apply maps, charts, aerial photographs, databases, and
images to analyze trends and patterns and interactions of
the natural, cultural, and physical environment. For more
information about this institute see http://www.gisetc.com/
2) Register Now for This Summer and Fall VISIT Online Courses
It
is now time to register for a VISIT online course this summer
from June 23 to August 18, or for a session in the fall semester
beginning October 15. High school teachers of science, technology,
or social sciences (either new to VISIT or returning from
previous Collaboratory courses and face-to-face workshops)
may now register via the online form at http://www.emich.edu/visit.
Teachers who complete the course requirements can receive
three graduate credits in science education from Eastern Michigan
University without any fee. Graduate credits are also available
from Colorado School of Mines.
3) Spring and Summer FTF Workshops Are Scheduled
VISIT
groups at various locations in the U.S. have scheduled face-to-face
workshops for teachers for this spring and summer. Check the
Announcements on the VISIT web site for further developments.
* Metro Boston Chapter of Tech Prep is hosting a workshop
at Bunker Hill Community College from 4-6 pm on May 15th to
introduce area teachers to VISIT. Deborah Boisvert and Fred
Hohn will lead the session. Teachers will log into VISIT and
examine the variety of lessons available. Fred will show GIS
in environmental science work that he has done in his classroom.
For information about this or other Massachusetts workshops,
contact Deborah Boisvert
[bois01@bellatlantic.net].
*On May 23, Charlie Fitzpatrick, ESRI Education Specialist,
will speak with VISIT leaders and teachers in Lenawee and
Monroe County schools, Michigan. Ron Robinson and Randy Raymond,
VISIT teacher leaders, and Anne Eschtruth will also present
at this workshop. Contact aeschtruth@online.emich.edu
for more information
* Oakland County Schools Summer GIS Workshop: June 17-21,
2002 VISIT will be hosting a GIS workshop for teachers involved
in the Oakland County Schools/VISIT collaboration. Contact
aeschtruth@online.emich.edu
for more information.
* VISIT teacher leader, Al Lewandowski, will lead a three
day GIS section at the Michigan Geographic Alliance Technology
Institute at Central Michigan University July 1-3, 2002. Contact:
Al Lewandowski [alew222@yahoo.com]
4) Teacher Leaders Melissa Martin and Henrietta List Featured
This Newsletter
Melissa
Martin and Henrietta List bring to VISIT and to K12 education
their experience as professionals applying GIS in environmental
decision-making.
 Melissa
Martin says, "I love solving technical puzzles, so bring on
the questions and I'll do my best to answer." Currently a
teacher of several different science courses at Northbridge
High School in Massachusetts, Martin brings to VISIT teachers
her experience as a professional GIS specialist in environmental
and ecological applications. She was employed by an environmental
firm as a GIS Analyst. For Central Massachusetts Regional
Planning Commission she worked on GIS projects in 40 different
towns and subregions. She consulted to the Navajo Nation and
was the GIS Developer for The Hopi Tribe's Office of Research
and Planning in Northern Arizona. At USGS she developed expertise
in ArcInfo. At Northern Arizona University she taught Map
and Image Interpretation and cored the endangered Goodding
Willow trees in Grand Canyon National Park. Martin is "passionate
about GIS, data integrity and ground truthing." She enjoys
ecological, environmental, geological and astrogeological
GIS applications."
Henrietta List works with teachers throughout the state for
the Maine Math/Science Alliance. She remarks, "We are putting
a Macintosh I-Book in the hands of every seventh grader in
the state of Maine next fall. I cannot think of a better time
to encourage the development of skills in GIS in the schools
throughout the state. Envisioning how it can be woven into
our high school curriculum and then how to scaffold the skills
through middle school is almost as exciting as identifying
rare communities in mixed mesophytic coastal forests."
List brings to that statewide Maine challenge, and to VISIT,
her lifelong passions and experiences as a conservation biologist.
For the Nature Conservancy she used aerial photographs and
conducted multifaceted analysis of resources to protect 1200
acres of rare coastal forest. In a similar project in Maine
she used C-Cap images to observe changes in vegetation type
over decades of suburban sprawl, and conceived a network of
properties that could create an extended highway for wildlife
to move about the coast without danger.
Fifteen teachers serve as leaders in the VISIT program. They
are from many different locations in the U.S. and different
kinds of schools -- urban, suburban, rural, public, and private.
They have diverse experience in GIS and in education, and
teach a spectrum of disciplines in science, social sciences,
and technology. Teacher Leaders are using geospatial tools
to support investigations in their own classrooms and communities
in such topics as biodiversity, stream ecology, flooding,
water chemistry, city infrastructure, school safety, forest
management, and others. Teacher Leaders serve in a variety
of roles in VISIT, such as the following:
- developing
investigations and documenting their work for benefit of
other teachers;
- evaluating
draft lessons according to the VISIT rubric;
- recruiting
teachers for the program;
- serving
as mentors for other teachers;
- providing
online and face-to-face technical, scientific, curricular
and pedagogical assistance to other teachers;
- moderating
and facilitating online discussions;
- advising
on project management through bi-weekly teleconferences.
5) VISIT Teachers Investigate Their Local Community Demographics,
Cancer Rates, Infrastructure, Underground Railway, Roller
Coasters, and More
The following
teacher investigators are currently conducting inquiries with
the support of peers and Teacher Leaders in the VISIT Collaboratory,
geo-referenced data, and tools for spatial visualization and
analysis. They are developing GIS-based lessons for their
classrooms on these topics: Jennifer Bellore, (North Farmington
H.S., MI) distribution of seismic events in Michigan; Margaret
Chernosky, (Bangor H.S., Maine), global prosperity and ecological
sustainability; Alan Doyle (St. Bernard's School, New York),
infrastructure of New York City; Sandra Grantley (Cardozo
H.S.,D.C.), impact of subway stop on Cardozo-Shaw neighborhood
in Washington D.C.; Lisa Hastings, (Discovery M.S., Plymouth-Canton,
MI), underground railway stops in Wayne County Michigan; Janelle
Kochanski, (N. Farmington H.S., MI) analysis of cancer rates
in relation to cement plants; Eric Martin (Winthrop H.S.,
Maine), analysis of population, land use, and phosphorus levels
in neighboring Cobbosee Lake; Pam McDonald, (Monson H.S.,
MA) mapping hazardous materials; Jill McGinn-Koepke, (Ann
Arbor, MI) mapping local demographics; Clayton McKenzie (Monroe
County CC, MI), relationships of plate tectonics and seismic
events globally; Peggy Najarian, (N. Farmington H.S., MI),
environmental justice; Alan Sills, (Patterson Public Schools,
N.J.) mapping Passaic County streets and streams; real-time
ozone monitoring in New Jersey; Eric Swager (Chelsea H.S.
Massachusetts), modeling roller coaster locations and attraction
factors in Cedar Point amusement park. Completed projects
will be posted in the VISIT Collaboratory.
6) A Weekend Solution: GIS Teamwork in the Collaboratory
The following
sequence of messages provides insight into team dynamics and
problem solving in the VISIT Collaboratory. Can you identify
seven things that teacher Koch did in this discussion, that
enabled others to help her find a technique for mapping toxic
releases in Michigan, within her weekend deadline? (Note:
teacher names are changed for privacy in Collaboratory examples.)
Message
no. 4669 posted by Jean Koch on Sat May 04, 2002 14:54 Subject
Please HELP! I have all the data I need for my project and
it all works with ArcVoyager so I thought I was on a roll.
However, I tried to do a query with my TRI [Toxic Release
Inventory] data to focus on Michigan only and the data is
not corresponding with the map. The Michigan data points appear
in Iowa and Minnesota and Wisconsin data points are in Michigan!!
Can I fix this? The identity of the data is accurate (latitude
and longitude along with facilities and names) it is just
not identified on the map properly. Please help me or offer
advice if you can. I really need to finish this lesson this
weekend. Thanks!! Jean
Message
no. 4670 [Branch from no. 4669] posted by Bev Hunter on Sat
May 04, 2002 15:08 Subject Re: Please HELP! Jean, I am now
sending via email your message to Yichun Xie who I think can
assist you. This is undoubtedly a projection issue. I'll see
what I can find out for you asap. Cheers, Beverly
Message
no. 4673 [Branch from no. 4671] posted by Al Lewandowski on
Sat May 04, 2002 18:29 Subject Re: Please HELP!
Hello Jean, How 'bout if you try and post both the map layer
and the table as an attachment to a message?
Remember, the map (shapefile .shp) will actually consist of
3 separate files all located in the same folder. They will
have the same name but different extensions (.dbf and .shx).
You could put all the files in one folder and compress it
with winzip or the equivalant for Mac if that's your platform.
That might help one of us to discover the problem.
al lew
Message
no. 4674 [Branch from no. 4669] posted by Jean Koch on Sat
May 04, 2002 20:57 Subject Re: Please HELP!
Attached are the files I am working with.
I downloaded the map and info from a site called Clary-Meuser
Research. I also located the original info in a comma delimited
text format, but I am not sure how to change it into a format
I can use. If you can offer any guidance on how to convert
the text, I can try and see if it will fix my problem.
Thanks for your help.
Jean
Message
no. 4675 [Branch from no. 4674] posted by Al Lewandowski on
Sun May 05, 2002 04:17 Subject Re: Please HELP!
Hello Jean, I made a sub-data set for Michigan which will
be easier for others to download, perhaps somebody else has
a thought about how to solve this problem. I'll keep trying,
but at the moment I'm out of ideas.
Al Lew
Message
no. 4677 [Branch from no. 4675] posted by Yichun Xie on Sun
May 05, 2002 10:30 Subject Re: Please HELP!
I found out a solution.
First load "mich.dbf" into an ArcView session, through "adding
a table"
Second create an event theme (through View menu, and Add Event
Theme menu choice)
Third specify the following parameters for the Add Event Theme
Dialog Box: Table: mich.dbf X Field: Lon_used Y Field: Lat_used
You will create a new theme, which has right coordinate (projection)
and lines up with US State or County data layer.
Cheers,
Yichun
Message
no. 4679 [Branch from no. 4678] posted by Jean Koch on Sun
May 05, 2002 11:03 Subject Re: Please HELP!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!! The Add Event Theme worked
like a charm. I wouldn't have figured that out in a million
years.
Thanks for all your help.
Jean
7) VISIT to Present at GIS Education Conference in July 2002
*VISIT
project leaders Yichun Xie, Beverly Hunter, Randy Raymond,
and Ron Robinson will represent the VISIT project and make
presentations at the ESRI Education User Conference July 5-7,
2002 in San Diego, CA. For more information about the conference,
see http://www.esri.com/industries/k-12/gisedcon02.html
8) National Advisory Board Meeting Scheduled for July 7, 2002
VISIT
National Advisory Board will meet at the ESRI Education User
Conference July 7. Randy Raymond is organizing this annual
event.
9) Colorado School of Mines Offers Graduate Credit for VISIT
Teachers
VISIT
Teacher Leader Steve Wanner at Boulder High School has arranged
with the Colorado School of Mines to offer VISIT teachers
the opportunity to receive two or four graduate credits for
completing part or all of the VISIT online courses. For more
information please contact Steve Wanner (303) 442-2430 x5312
wanner@bvsd.k12.co.us.
The School of Mines credits are an alternative to the three
graduate credits already offered for free from EMU.
10) About the VISIT program
VISIT
is a professional development program for secondary school
teachers, funded in part by a grant from the National Science
Foundation's Teacher Enhancement program to Eastern Michigan
University (EMU). Dr.
Yichun Xie is Principal Investigator and Beverly
Hunter is Co-Principal Investigator.
Posted
by Beverly Hunter, Director, Piedmont Research Institute.
Please re-post freely. Contact: bev@piedmontresearch.org
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