Assessing the Influence of Field- and GIS-based Inquiry on Student Attitude and Conceptual Knowledge in an Undergraduate Ecology Lab (original) (raw)
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Introducing Gis Skills to Conservation Biology Students
2009
An apparent problem in the interpretation of landscapes, navigation, description of research areas and the overall inability of making sense of their positions on the ground was observed amongst the students enrolling in the program of Conservation Biology at Universiti Malaysia Sabah. This became even more pronounced during proposal presentation, result presentation and the presentation of the final year projects. As a remedial step, GIS skills was introduced and made compulsory to all students. The overall goal of this initiative is to blend the skills into their academic and field training, preparing them for a more meaningful exploration into the environment, both during their academic years and beyond. We present here how the problem was identified and the levels of skills that are introduce to solve the problem.
GIS Technology + Socio-Scientific Issues = Teacher and Student Learning
Two individuals, one high school teacher and one engineering graduate student, created a lesson in an attempt to expand traditional lessons and instruct the graduate student on effective pedagogy. This article outlines the integrated high school lesson showcasing all the aspects of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) as well as the lessons learned by the teachers. Fifty-four urban students participated in the STEM lesson and utilized outdoors education, problem-based learning, geographical information systems (GIS) technology, engineering design, science content, mathematics content, authentic science, and socio-scientific issues (SSI). While embracing a social constructivist lens, and using a quantitative pre/post survey as well as qualitative observations of student interactions and teacher reflections, several findings benefit K-12 teachers and researchers of integrated STEM lessons. Main findings include increased student content assessment scores, positive student self-perception of STEM abilities, increased student questioning and collaboration, and the need for more collaborative classroom experiences guided by the needs and questions of students as seen by the teachers. Implications reach throughout the K-12 community with the importance of accessibility of truly integrated STEM content lessons utilizing nature, problems, real-world scenarios, content, SSI, and skills highlighted in Common Core, NGSS, and ISTE.
Integrating GIS into Science Classes to Handle STEM Education.pdf
STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics and is an approach to education that aims to integrate these four separate disciplines. In theory, the idea of integration is clear, but in practice in a school setting it proves to be problematic due to the current structure of the educational curricula. In the current structure of educational curricula, usually only mathematics and science courses from STEM disciplines are included in school programmes and these courses are conducted in an isolated manner separate from other disciplines. This problem may be overcome by using interrelated applications such as the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to integrate mathematics and science courses within STEM disciplines. As an interdisciplinary technology, GIS serves as a pedagogical tool for use in STEM education. Using a qualitative research paradigm, the current study evaluated a sample of junior (thirdyear) science teacher candidates (N=34) in a STEM educational setting using GIS. The data was collected from the written science texts of teacher candidates (e.g. the role of GIS in STEM teaching and science teaching; the implementation of STEM education in science classes) before and after the teaching intervention. At the end of the study, it was discovered that a four-week long teaching intervention had a positive effect on the science teacher candidates’ views of implementing STEM as well as improving their views on and awareness of GIS
Defining and Measuring the Influences of GIS-Based Instruction on Students’ STEM-Relevant Reasoning
The Journal of geography, 2019
Geospatial technologies, such as geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, and GPS have been used in a variety of educational settings to help improve student learning. A sample of 53 high school seniors was recruited from the Geospatial Semester (GSS), a course that emphasizes the use of GIS for problem-solving and students in AP Physics and AP History served as a comparison. GSS students' spatial thinking and problem solving improved across the school year in contrast to Comparison Group. Results suggest that GIS-based instruction can be used to enhance students' use of spatial reasoning when solving STEM-relevant problems.
Using Geospatial Information Technologies and Field Research to Enhance Classroom Learning
Journal of Natural …, 2005
A focus of grazing management courses is the cause-effect relationships between grazing livestock distribution and environmental and management variables. A learning module for the classroom was developed to enable students to actively study livestock distribution by analyzing recently collected data from an on-ranch situation. Data were collected at the University of Nebraska's Barta Brothers Ranch in the Nebraska Sandhills. Six cows (Bos taurus) were fitted with global positioning system (GPS) collars and grazed freely with a herd of cow-calf pairs. Their locations were recorded at 5-or 10-minute intervals during two summer grazing periods in 2003. Following each grazing period, the collars were removed and the data were transferred to a personal computer. A geographic information system (GIS) software program (GRASS) was used for data processing and analyses. A standard digital elevation model of the ranch property was imported into GRASS as the base topographical map. Software tools were used to create animations and present analyzed data in tabular and graphical form. The learning module has two lessons. The first lesson presents the principles of grazing distribution and the second lesson enables the student to analyze the GPS locational data. In analyzing the GPS data, students have numerous options and select the pasture, date(s), hours of the day, and the independent variable (e.g., topographical position or livestock water location) to be included in the analyses. Students can develop hypotheses concerning the relationship between these independent variables and livestock distribution, and test them using the output from the module. Student evaluations indicate that the module is effective in engaging the students as learners and improving their ability to think critically.
This study assessed the implementation and effectiveness of GIS-Based Environment Laboratory Activities in General Education Classes specifically SCIENVP and LBYENVP classes offered by the DLSU Physics Department. There were 73 respondents designated as the control group for the traditional approach while 93 respondents as the experimental group for the GIS-based approach. The total number of items for the SCIENVP concept test was 81 and 68 items for the LBYENVP concept test. The experimental group was given the student evaluation questionnaire (SEQ) and GIS awareness and preparedness survey (GAPS). The GAPS questions are arranged according to respondent’s ICT proficiency, school’s ICT capability, respondent’s GIS proficiency, effect of GIS and GIS integration. The training of teachers was done during the 2nd term of the AY 2011-2012 while the study was implemented on the 3rd term AY 2011-2012. The study revealed that GIS-based learning has a significant correlation between the students’ scores and the method of teaching based on Chi-square test. Comparing the mean posttest scores using tabular Z-test at 0.95 ±1.64, SCIENVP Z-test result obtained 2.61 while LBYENVP had 2.21 which lie outside the region of acceptance. This signifies that the GIS based method significantly increased the students’ level of understanding than that of the traditional method.
Learning to do geography? University students posing questions in GIS laboratory exercises
In many higher education curricula, pre-structured step-by-step laboratory exercises in introductory courses in geographical information systems (GIS) are an important part of the training of future geographers. The reasons for this approach to teaching GIS are manifold, such as large numbers of students, off-the-shelf desktop software that is often complex, technical challenges, and scarce faculty resources. Often the reasons are well agreed upon by members of a university faculty and among the students. Research in other fields has shown that the use of a controlled manual for laboratory work often provides low learning potentials. However, not much empirical research has dealt with this issue within a GIS learning environment. Inspired by research on the value of student-generated questions within science education, the authors take a closer look at the type of student-generated questions and their relation to students’ self-image of their learning approach in two pre-structured GIS laboratory settings at two Danish universities. They conclude that the vast majority of student-generated questions are of a basic information type and independent of the students’ self-image of their learning approach. Further, it is found that wonderment questions, i.e. questions that are reflective in nature and show students the process towards acquiring extended geographical knowledge and software proficiency, are rarely asked.
Enhancing GIS Education with Student-Created Labs and a Peer Reference Manual
Typically, students from a wide variety of academic majors and backgrounds enroll in introductory Geographic Information System (GIS) courses. In these classes, students learn the basic analytical skills and geographic science in order to appropriately use a GIS, while also learning the mechanics of a particular GIS program. In order to engage the class more fully in the learning process, we ask each student to select a topic that captures his/her interest (for example their major, hobbies, sports, or other interests) and to create a GIS lab around it. Also, we ask our students to solve some GIS questions using resources other than the instructor(s). As students in the GIS classes realize their work requires a skill not fully covered in their previous course work, they need to learn the steps to accomplish the task(s). After discovering the solution, the students write the procedures, which then become incorporated into a student-generated GIS reference manual. This manual acts as a resource to all students and faculty using GIS. These projects require the students to engage problem-solving and communication skills in addition to their GIS abilities. We have found that in generating and executing these exercises they cover a variety of pedagogical goals.
International Journal of Innovation in Science and Mathematics Education
Fieldwork, known for fostering more engaging and authentic learning experiences, is an established tradition in higher education which is changing; increasingly run on-campus for financial and logistical reasons and enhanced through education technologies to reflect industry practices. Here we examine student perceptions of on-campus fieldwork with the aim of understanding if on-campus fieldwork was valued and why, to be able to compare against literature on off-campus fieldwork. We explore student views on activities at the Jock Marshall Reserve, an on-campus nature reserve of Monash University, Australia using mixed-methods approach. An online survey targeted students undertaking four subjects across first to third year and received 116 responses. In alignment with off-campus fieldwork studies, we found that overwhelmingly respondents highly valued fieldwork with dominant reasons being; 1) developed skills relevant to ‘real-world’ science, 2) reinforced theoretical learning, and 3...