{"id":38159,"date":"2015-08-07T11:32:26","date_gmt":"2015-08-07T18:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=38159"},"modified":"2015-08-07T15:27:23","modified_gmt":"2015-08-07T22:27:23","slug":"getting-from-point-a-to-point-b-nau-recognized-for-advancement-in-mapping-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/getting-from-point-a-to-point-b-nau-recognized-for-advancement-in-mapping-systems\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting from point A to point B: NAU recognized for advancement in mapping systems"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an ever changing technology-based society, Geographic Information Systems has gone from being a scientific term used by field experts, to an integral part of our everyday lives. From following directions on a cellphone to mapping archeological sites in the Grand Canyon, the use of GIS is more prevalent\u00a0than ever.<\/p>\n

Northern Arizona University\u2019s Center for Science Teaching and Learning<\/a> and Geospatial Research and Information Lab<\/a>\u00a0is ahead of the GIS\u00a0technology trend and recently received a\u00a0Special Achievement award<\/a> for educating Arizona students from K-12 to the university level.<\/p>\n

GIS is used to run complex analyses on our earth\u2019s surface to solve real-world problems, like how to predict landslides or what might happen in a flood. Each of a multitude of layers represents specific data such as elevation, topography and demographic information.<\/p>\n

Grade school students are now using this mapping system in the classroom to tackle complex community problems\u00a0like mapping energy use and investigating\u00a0erosion issues.\u00a0This is in large-part because NAU is bridging the gap of this complex science by training K-12 teachers on using GIS with students.<\/p>\n

Lori Ann Rubino-Hare<\/strong>, a professional development coordinator at NAU, said\u00a0students of all ages can benefit from the center’s method of teaching. \u201cStudents who might not be interested in traditional science classes begin to engage when given opportunities to explore spatial data in a GIS,\u201d she said. \u201cThey look for patterns, make predictions and communicate their ideas using maps which can be shared easily online.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2009, NAU was awarded a grant by the National Science Foundation and Science Foundation of Arizona to expand the Power of Data Project<\/a>. This three-legged model, which helps teachers integrate geospatial technologies into existing courses, combines three different areas of expertise. A teaching specialist, a content specialist and a field expert work in collaboration to create a teaching model that has proven to be successful both inside and outside the classroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the Power of Data participants partnered with community agencies,” Rubino-Hare explained. “Students explored local issues and proposed solutions to authentic audiences. It\u2019s an even more powerful learning opportunity when the students collect the data themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rubino-Hare, Mark F. Manone<\/strong>, assistant professor of practice in Geography and James Sample<\/strong>, professor in the School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, make up the three experts of the GIS team at NAU.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe support one another; we don\u2019t all need to know all the content, pedagogy or technology. We can\u2019t all be experts in everything, so we join forces,\u201d Rubino-Hare says. \u201cThis results in a powerful team that can accomplish so much more than we could if we worked individually.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through the state site license managed by GRAIL, NAU is able to share its GIS studies, Power of Data Project and mapping software with all Arizona schools, increasing interest in STEM fields as the university continues to help map and model our world.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an ever changing technology-based society, Geographic Information Systems has gone from being a scientific term used by field experts, to an integral part of our everyday lives. From following directions on a cellphone to mapping archeological sites in the Grand Canyon, the use of GIS is more prevalent\u00a0than ever. Northern Arizona University\u2019s Center for…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":38168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-academics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}