Alta GIS Teacher Inservice Workshop

Friends of Alta sponsored a three year GIS (Geographic Information Systems) Teacher Inservice during the summers of 2004, 2005, and 2006. The goal of these workshops was to familiarize local Salt Lake school teachers with GIS and its application as a teaching and learning tool. These workshops were also intended to assist educators in incorporating GIS into the State's core curriculum.

GIS can be used as part of the curriculum requirement across all learning subjects. Alta has many benefits as a teaching laboratory, including ecology, hydrology, geography, history, biology, and meteorology. Student can gain a better understanding of their local environment and historical and current interactions with Alta's environment. We believe that young people who learn about Albion basin and its natural resources will be more likely to protect and preserve it in the future.

Teachers learned how to collect data with a Global Positioning System (GPS) and how to incorporate the data into a GIS. They also learned the applicability of GIS to many subject matters they teach. The teachers have taken back knowledge about GIS, GPS units, and Alta to the classroom. An amazing aspect to this workshop was the volunteer effort by the local GIS professional community. Mentors and trainers often outnumbered teachers, thanks to everyone involved.

The following lessons have been created by Leslie Lewis of Escalante Elementary, a participant of the Teacher Inservice and an avid GIS fan. The following lesson plans are posted on the Utah Education Network and are geared towards the 5th grade.

Triateration				This lesson introduces GPS satellites and how they work. Radio waves and satellites help GPS users determine their position on earth. Students will arrive at the conclusion that Venn diagrams are a form of triateration.
Point of View				This lesson is part of a series of lessons for preparing students to use GPS units to map their school or safe walking routes to school. In this lesson students will observe a Lego village from multiple points of view and draw one view. Students will then use the famous places portion of Terra Server. com to look at the Statue of Liberty, the Pentagon and other famous places. This will help them better understand satellite images that they will be working with.
Our Community: Top to Bottom				Students enjoy a beautiful day in the mountains with wildflowers, fresh air, and physical activity. We encourage them to appreciate the beauty and the importance of our watershed. 5th grade students travel to Alta, Utah to search for evidence of erosion, weathering, magnetism, uplift, U shaped canyons, and pollution.
Units in the Head				After viewing the 4-H slide show presentation about GPS units, students have a unit in their hands to examine, indoors, with the satellites off. Later, they go outside for discovery.
Compare and Contrast: Then and Now				Students compare a GIS generated map using the most current fly - over data to a map of the same location using older fly - over data.
Amazing Corn Maze				Students practice the tracking feature of their GPSrs. They can then create a GIS layout of their tracks on a previous fly - over year.