From My Back Yard to the Poles

Finding the Fingerprints of

Climate Change with GIS

Betsy Youngman Phoenix Country Day School

Climate change is everywhere in the media but is abstract to students.

“The purpose of the schools (is) to …‘teach carpentry, not hammer’… We need to teach the whys and ways of the world. Tools come and tools go. Teaching our children tools (alone) limits their knowledge to these tools and hence limits their futures’” -- Michael Bellino, an electrical engineer from Boston University’s center for space Physics quoted by Todd Oppenheimer in his article “The Computer Delusion”, The Atlantic Monthly, July 1997, p. 62.

GIS brings students and data together.

Students enjoy discovery of patterns.

The ice cap is changing in both Greenland and Antarctica.

As Fresh Water Hits Atlantic, Climate Changes

- All Things Considered, June 16, 2005

(Illustration by Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

In the North Atlantic, there are dramatic decreases in ocean salinity and the speed of the Gulf Stream.

Increasingly technological, students are used to multi-modality learning.

Visual learning illuminates ideas.

Students construct understanding in unique ways.

How can one connect students to science?

Authentic projects engage and motivate students.

Students are motivated to learn by investigating issues of concern.

Our research question: Where is the kelp found and does this change from year to year?

El Nino and the Kelp Forest

Can Students use GIS as an Analysis and Presentation

-0.60

-0.40

-0.20

0.00

0.20

0.40

0.60

0.80

1.00

1.20

1.40

1.60

Date of Survey

Response (Likert Scale)

I can use GIS to explain something toa friend.

-0.36 0.71 0.96 1.36

I feel comfortable analyzing data forscience class.

0.62 0.76 0.88 1.07

I can use GIS as a presentation tool. -0.28 0.41 0.83 1.22

31-Aug-05 17-Sep-05 30-Sep-05 5-Nov-05

Pre-GIS Post -GIS

Does GIS increase student Engagment and Enjoyment of Science?

0.00

0.20

0.40

0.60

0.80

1.00

1.20

Date of Survey

Response (Likeert Scale)

I enjoy science class. 0.79 0.86 1.10 1.14

When working GIS I feel there is apurpose for my work.

0.21 0.49 0.77 1

31-Aug-05 17-Sep-05 30-Sep-05 5-Nov-05

Pre-GIS Post -GIS