Geographic Information Systems in the Classroom: Methods and Philosophies

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a spatial analysis tool that has received increasing interest for natural resource applications. This tool is being employed in the classroom setting to teach students about natural resource management, planning, and design. The tool is still relatively new and educators are interested in learning about how to use this tool in the classroom. Based on GIS classroom experiences from 1972 through 1993, we present our philosophy concerning methods and approaches when teaching spatial applications for environmental management. We suggest that the student maintain real experiences and contact with the landscape through classroom exercises; emphasize contextual issues related to GIS before and after computer modeling; integrate GIS with verbal, written, and graphical skills; and allow flexibility in the modeling topics to be studied. In addition, we discourage the endless memorization of GIS routines and algorithms, rather we stress the experiential act of modeling.