​   GIScience in High School Education

 

      As a GIS Consultant for the Newark Science High School, I created a series of GPS and GIS labs, which included mapping and other data visualization activities, to teach students how to calibrate and operate hand-held GPS units to collect georeferenced information out in the field.  The series of sequential labs also introduced students to a variety of methods and tools traditionally used in planning and other sciences to conduct areal assessment.

 

     Participants worked in teams to canvass the study site where they collected information about the local landmarks and other interesting features found around the area. After the fieldwork activity, students were able to import the waypoints and the feature attribute data they had collected, into a GIS project to create maps of existing local conditions.  Overall, students learned about the use and importance of geotechnologies including GPS, GIS, as well as online and printed maps, to support scientific fieldwork research.

​

     In addition, a series of extracurricular activities were conducted to support the GIS program during the consultancy.  These included a GIS Day event; and the distribution of several scholarships from the Briavel's Internships in Geography (BIG), a program we funded in honor of Dr. Briavel Holcomb of Rutgers University’s Geography Department.

​