Abstract
Idaho EdPARC: Seventeen Years of K-16 Geospatial Education
Track: Teacher Education and Educational Research
Authors: Lee Vierling
As part of the Education Public Access Resource Center (EdPARC), a division of the Upper-Midwest Aerospace Consortium, educators in Idaho, Montana, North and South Dakota, and Wyoming have been part of a regional effort to improve geospatial thinking and reasoning in the public schools for 17 years. Numerous teacher workshops, short-courses, summer institutes and other activities have been delivered to help teachers understand how GIS and remote sensing tools and data can be used to support and enhance learning in science, mathematics, social studies and art.
Idaho EdPARC has held extended professional development activities in all corners of the state. Recent efforts have focused upon teacher training at the McCall Outdoor Science School (MOSS), a field campus in central Idaho conducive for involving a wide cross-section of teachers and students. Recent activities have focused upon the role of geospatial technologies in natural resource management as it relates to climate change.