AbstractStrategies to Help Teachers Lead Locally-Based GIS Environmental Investigations Track: Educational Research and Teacher Education Author(s): Cathlyn Stylinski, Cassie Doty GIS offers a powerful avenue to community investigations, which can engage K-12 students in local issues, help them link prior understanding with new knowledge, and dramatically extend the classroom experience. However, locally-based GIS explorations present many challenges for teachers with limited time and skills to acquire local datasets and write curriculum. Through our NSF-funded Inquiring with GIS project, we have developed and refined strategies to help teachers learn complex geospatial functions, develop their own customized datasets, and successfully implement a local GIS-based watershed investigation in their classrooms. These strategies include providing comprehensive curriculum constructed with the Understanding-by-Design framework, classroom-friendly regional data layers, straightforward guidance to create a limited number of local data layers, opportunities to practice new skills, and extensive follow-up support. We will discuss these strategies and highlight evaluation results, which include improved teacher skills and comfort working with GIS and using it in the classroom. Cathlyn Stylinski University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science UMCES Frostburg , Maryland 21532 United States Phone: 301.689.7272 Fax: 301 689.7200 E-mail: cat@al.umces.edu Cassie Doty University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science 301 Braddock Road Frostburg , Maryland 21532 United States Phone: 301.689.7134 E-mail: cdoty@al.umces.edu |