Integrating GIS into an Earth and Environmental Science Curriculum

地球系统科学（40）我们正在整合GIS技术到大多数领域，实验室和课堂课程在一个新的地球和环境科学（EES）计划在弗吉尼亚州卫斯理学院。我们的项目包括要求装备一个增强型实验室/教室和一个小型GIS实验室，并获得两件能够收集数字数据的环境监测设备，以便导入ArcView并使用。虽然GIS已经成为操纵、分析和显示空间数据的重要工具，但对于地理学以外的学生来说，接触和熟练使用这项技术并不总是那么容易。为了帮助缩小差距，我们正在将GIS整合到现有EES课程的几乎所有课程中。我们正在改编南罗斯大学、刘易斯和克拉克大学、华盛顿和李大学、理查德斯托克顿大学和迈阿密大学的部分示范项目。刚开始大学生涯的学生在他们的低年级课程中只熟悉少量的空间操作，主要受益于GIS的视觉方面，而即将毕业的EES专业学生则精通空间数据分析的各个方面。由于可用的数据几乎是无限多样的，因此同样多样化的课堂情境被用来鼓励假设的建立和检验，讨论因果关系和合作学习。未来的K-12教师和学生参加EES课程，以满足一般的研究要求也发现，GIS组件在讲座和实验室使经验更具互动性，视觉刺激，和乐趣。

Earth Systems Science (40)We are integrating GIS technology into most field, laboratory, and classroom courses in a new Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES) program at Virginia Wesleyan College. Our project includes a request to equip an enhanced laboratory/lecture classroom and a small GIS laboratory, and acquire two pieces of environmental monitoring equipment capable of collecting digital data for import and use in ArcView . Although GIS has established itself as an important tool for the manipulation, analysis, and display of spatial data, it is not always easy for students outside of geography to gain exposure to, and proficiency with, this technology. To help narrow the gap, we are integrating GIS into nearly all courses of the existing EES curriculum. We are adapting parts of exemplary programs at Sul Ross University, Lewis and Clark University, Washington and Lee University, Richard Stockton University, and Miami University. Students just beginning their college career become familiar with only a small number of spatial manipulations in their lower division courses, benefiting mostly from the visual aspects of GIS, whereas EES majors close to graduation become quite proficient in all aspects of spatial data analysis.Because the available data exist in almost limitless variety, equally diverse classroom situations are being employed to encourage hypothesis building and testing, discussion of cause and effect, and cooperative learning. Future K-12 teachers and students taking EES courses to fulfill general studies requirements are also discovering that GIS components in lecture and lab make the experiences more interactive, visuallystimulating, and fun.