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GIS in the Classroom

ESRI ArcView Software Upgrade

GlobeManitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning is pleased to announce that it has recently acquired a new provincial site licence for ESRI Canada Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software version ArcView 10 for use by students and educators. The software is available in both English and French. To receive the updated DVD of ArcView 10, please contact Linda Connor.

Social Studies GIS Related Learning Outcomes (Adobe PDF Icon 46 KB)
This handout lists Grade 3 to Grade 10 Social Studies specific learning outcomes that could be achieved by using GIS software.

Visit the Social Studies website for curriculum and implementation documents.

Lessons and Tutorials Created by Manitoba Educators

The GIS Lessons section includes four lessons relating to Social Studies Specific Learning Outcomes Grades 4 – 10. The lessons provide step-by-step instructions and include numerous screen shots to guide the user.

The GIS Tutorials section provides tutorials for a number of common functions and procedures that will give the user more options to expand the capabilities of GIS. The tutorials are not lesson or grade-specific and therefore can be used in a wide range of applications.

Manitoba Model Forest GIS Caribou Lesson Plan

The boreal woodland caribou is considered a Threatened Species by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) and the Province of Manitoba. A threatened species is a wildlife species that is likely to become endangered if nothing is done to reverse the factors leading to its extinction.  As a result of their threatened status, provincial biologists and resource managers are studying boreal woodland caribou by collecting information on where they live, when they live there and what types of habitats they are using.

This Woodland Caribou lesson created in part by the Manitoba Model Forest, puts students in the role of a GIS Analyst working for Manitoba Conservation to prepare and analyze boreal woodland caribou locations.

This lesson was developed using ArcGIS 9.3 and can be used with more recent versions of the software. Please contact Tony Viveiros for more information on the lesson or if you have any questions.

Also, learn more about Manitoba’s forestry industry by reading “A Focus on Forestry in Manitoba. A Curriculum supplement to Geographic Issues of the 21st Century”

Lessons from Parks Canada

Riding Mountain National Park GIS Lessons

This group of 6 lessons will help newcomers to GIS become familiar with the software by following step by step instructions to create maps while learning about reintroduction of species, public safety, invasive species, and prescribed burning. The lessons are based on real-life data from Riding Mountain National Park.

Teachers will be able to:

  • Choose the software (ArcGis 9x or ArcView 3x) and the level of difficulty.
  • Incorporate the accompanying resources into their lesson plans to provide context and to incorporate outcomes in other subjects.
  • Guide students so they can proceed to the GIS lesson itself. A fictional first-person scerario will help set the scene for the lesson and detailed instructions will guide in the creation of a map.
  • Consult the Extension Options document to see how the GIS activity can lead to other activities.

Before you begin you will need to download the data from each WinZip file and extract it to the corresponding named folder. Then save the START HERE document and select the Getting Started button.

NOTE: The data required for each of these lessons is located in its corresponding named folder, with one exception: the orthophoto (i.e. aerial photograph) named "RMNP_0625.ecw". This orthophoto is stored in the folder labelled "Colour Ortho RMNP 0625 goes here", rather than a separate copy being stored in each exercise folder. This reduces the amount of disk space used by these lessons, as the orthophoto file is very large.

Lessons and Tutorials from ESRI Canada

Additional lessons for social studies and science, developed for ArcView, can be found at ESRI Canada Teaching Materials: Lessons, for example

  • Acid Rain
  • Exploring the Geography Network Canada
  • Settlement in Canada
  • Volcanoes of the World
  • Working with Map Projections

ESRI Tutorials
These tutorials are intended to lead the teacher through various GIS operations which may be used to set up classroom activities.

Search for social studies and science lesson packs at ArcLessons, for example

  • Canada's Climate
  • Latitude, Longitude and Map Projections

Resources

GIS Handheld

Books, Videos and Newsletters

Manitoba Agri-Maps Gallery
The Agri-Maps Map Viewer provides Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives' GIS information in a dynamic/interactive web-based format.  The Map Viewer application includes data on Manitoba's geography and resources, and current aerial photography.

Manitoba Land Initiative
The Manitoba Land Initiative website is the source for geo-spatial information from the Government of Manitoba. Manitoba maps and images may be downloaded for free following a simple registration process.

Manitoba GIS Map Gallery
Interactive mapping tool to query and view mineral disposition and geoscientific data from Manitoba Department of Industry, Economic Development and Mines.

Manitoba Red River Valley Flood Protection
A computer model for predicting flood levels. This project uses GIS-based tools to facilitate the use and analysis of Red River Valley's data.

The Atlas of Canada
Collection of reference maps, free data, lesson plans, map making units, etc.

GIS Day
This is a global event part of the National Geographic Society's Awareness Week. The website includes materials, videos, newsletters, discussion forums, etc.

The Geography Network Canada
This is a resource that provides Canadian geographic content including maps and data. To explore this resource follow the Geography Networks lesson from ESRI.