Our World GIS Education

Our World Using GIS was developed to enhance geographic information system (GIS) learning for students of all levels, grade school through college, and to provide teachers with comprehensive and easy-to-use resources for GIS instruction in the classroom. Creatively inspired by the award-winning Mapping Our World: GIS Lessons for Educators (MOWGLE), Our World GIS Education offers flexible GIS resources with the latest ESRI software technology for all educators.

Teachers are given all of the tools necessary to easily incorporate GIS into their curriculum, regardless of their level of experience teaching GIS. The lessons and projects provide an opportunity to combine global and regional geographic themes and issues, inquiry-based learning, and interactive mapping and analysis into the curriculum while teaching technology skills. Each book contains all of the components needed to create GIS projects, which include:

- Lesson overviews including curriculum standards information
- Guidelines and tips for teaching the lesson
- Suggested lesson extensions
- Answer keys
- GIS data required for investigation or exercise
- GIS software (ArcExplorer-Java Edition for Education or ArcGIS Desktop 9.2)

Comparing curriculum goals with the instructional goals of each book is a good way to determine which book(s) fit the curriculum best.

- Thinking Spatially Using GIS: Our World Using GIS, Level 1 - Spatial thinking concepts and skills are cultivated and basic GIS software skills are taught including map reading and pattern recognition skills.

- Mapping Our World Using GIS: Our World Using GIS, Level 2 - Investigation and geographic inquiry is explored while basic GIS software skills are solidified.

- Analyzing Our World Using GIS: Our World Using GIS, Level 3 - The geographic inquiry and analysis skill set is extended to include data acquisition with a lesson using ArcGIS Spatial Analyst.

- Making Spatial Decisions: Our World Using GIS, Level 4 - Students undertake more independent study as they analyze real-world issues using GIS project workflows to ultimately draw informed conclusions.

Levels 1-3 are books to be used directly by teachers as an instructional resource. Student workbooks for Levels 1-3 are available and contain student exercises and answer sheets. Level 4 is to be used directly by the student for individual study. For educators that incorporate Level 4 in their curriculum, a free Instructor Resource DVD is available.