ArcGIS Desktop software to invade classrooms

Teachers with access to ArcGIS Desktop software (ArcInfo, ArcEditor, or ArcView) will be able to use Thinking Spatially Using GIS and newly created educational materials to integrate geospatial technology into primary-level classrooms. The new GIS teaching materials are available for download from the Web at no cost and complement the lessons that are currently available in the Thinking Spatially Using GIS book.

"The materials include ArcGIS software-based student workbook pages, teacher notes, map documents, and a few revised data layers," says Laura Bowden, ESRI K–16 program coordinator.

Thinking Spatially Using GIS is level 1 in the award-winning Our World GIS Education book series, which was created to enhance geospatial learning for students of all levels—grade school through college—and provide teachers with comprehensive and easy-to-use resources for the classroom. Lessons in Thinking Spatially Using GIS align with National Geography Standards and introduce students to basic concepts in spatial inquiry through conventional third-through-sixth-grade topics. Students practice map reading and pattern recognition skills by exploring, for example, Ferdinand Magellan's trip around the world, where tornados occur in the United States and why, and early settlement patterns in the United States. Within the new ArcGIS Desktop teaching materials, there is an activity that has been added for lesson 2, "Touring the Zoo," that gives students the opportunity to use ArcGIS to draw their zoo tour route.