The Geospatial Semester: Concurrent Enrollment in Geospatial Technologies

ABSTRACT

Geospatial technologies are becoming more ubiquitous in our society; however, efforts to sustainably and effectively bring these tools to secondary education have proven challenging. An innovative program in Virginia, the geospatial semester (GSS), is described. The program offers high school students the opportunity to learn about geospatial technologies and apply them to local problems, and students can earn university credit. This article shares details of the program, along with examples of student work. Assessment of the program's impact shows that GSS students have increased spatial vocabularies and improved performance in making claims and providing evidence compared with non-GSS students.

Key Words:

• geographic education
• GIS
• spatial knowledge
• pedagogy

Additional information

Funding

The research reported in this work was supported by the Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center (National Science Foundation Grant SBE1041707).

Notes on contributors

Bob Kolvoord

Bob Kolvoord is a professor in the Department of Integrated Science and Technology and serves as the dean of the College of Integrated Science and Engineering at James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA.

Kathryn Keranen

Kathryn Keranen is an instructor in the Department of Integrated Science and Technology at James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA.

Stuart Rittenhouse

Stuart Paul Rittenhouse is an instructor in the Department of Integrated Science and Technology at James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA.