Students, teachers learn GIS skills
Heidi Zemach | For the Drums
Students from Saint Mary’s visit Exit Glacier near Seward as part of a new statewide Environmental Science course. High school teachers from schools across Alaska took two students apiece to Seward earlier this month to pilot the new course.
Students from Saint Mary’s visit Exit Glacier near Seward as part of a new statewide Environmental Science course. High school teachers from schools across Alaska took two students apiece to Seward earlier this month to pilot the new course. The semester long course, which blends place-based outdoor learning with online coursework, will rely heavily on GIS (Geographic Information System) mapping software technology recently developed at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Participants were from as diverse, far-flung communities as Anchorage, Kodiak Island, Sitka, Northwest Arctic, Lower Kuskokwim, and the Lake and Penn District. During the week-long camp, participants discovered what an interesting and challenging learning environment Seward offers for users of GIS and other geo-spatial technologies such as GPS (Global Positioning System), and RS (Remote Sensing) with its mountains of moving glacial silt, receding glacier, tidal regions, and diverse marine and plant life.