Engagement

Ask students, "Have you ever seen or eaten a Club sandwich? What are the layers of the Club sandwich?" (bread, mayonnaise, lettuce, bacon, tomato, bread…) The presenter may want to have an actual Club sandwich as a visual. Tell the students, "Earth is like a Club sandwich. What are the layers of Earth?" (core, mantle and crust or core, mesosphere, asthenosphere, lithosphere) Tell students that "GIS, Geographic Information Systems, are used in many aspects of daily life. GIS is like an Earth sandwich with each layer representing a set of data. GIS will go into greater detail about the layers of Earth than we just mentioned." Tell the students, "A way to envision what can be included in a GIS database is if you can answer "yes" to the question, can it be mapped?" Ask the students to "brainstorm what sort of information (layers) you could find in a GIS, what things can be mapped?" (Some general examples are the following: hydrology, topography, ecology, geology, land use, utilities, soil types, streets, land parcels, other human characteristics such as demographic or socioeconomic) Tell the students to look at the layers that were brainstormed, classify and sort the layers into two groups - physical layers and human layers. (Physical layers are information about the natural features of an area. Human layers are facts about people, their structures, or their interactions with the land.)

Demo the GIS program for the students. Have the students use the GIS program to view your city or one nearby. Have students identify different items on the map and classify each layer that is represented on the map as a type of information they brainstormed earlier. Have students share their findings.

Assessment: Monitor student ideas of layers, grouping of layers and classification of GIS program layers.

Exploration

Tell the students, "They can choose to live anywhere that they want in the United States. They have the support of friends and/or family for such a move and the money necessary to make it happen. They need to decide where to live." Have students individually fill out the Inventory for Residential Preferences (see handouts). After filling out the inventory, students should rank the major categories in order of importance to them. Once the students have determined the categories that matter most to them, have the students use the GIS program to determine a location that meets those requirements. Have the students share with the class what was the most important category in determining where to live with their reasons why and the place(s) they ended up choosing.

Assessment: Resulting location where students would like live.

Explanation

Ask the students, "what are the advantages and disadvantages of using a GIS in order to determine where to live? Include your reasons." (An example of an advantage would be the ease and speed of mapping their preferences, any disadvantages would depend on the GIS program used.)

Assessment: Discussion on the advantages and disadvantages in using GIS in decision making.

Elaboration

Have students discuss ways that GIS improves our lives (see Applications), the limitations of technologies (cost, materials, etc.) and how science helps drive technology (see NSES Standard E).

Assessment: Discussion on technology in our lives.

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