Introduction and Required Materials

So the only materials required for this assignment is an interactive ARC-GIS online website that can be accessed here . The website was shown to me by the lovely Jessica Drake and is apart of the Nat-geo educator resources.

Instructions

  • The first step of the lesson will be introducing the class very briefly to the type of plate tectonic boundaries. It is expected that most of the learners will have an understanding of these concepts but a brief review won’t hurt.
  • Once complete with the review the class will be instructed to navigate to the Natgeo website to begin with the exercise. Please see the video below for the ARC-GIS online portion of the instructions.

Goal of Lesson

The main goal of this lesson is for students to use the map programming to create their own map with information they are interested about. The layers that can be added to the map are mainly to do with the natural world and Western environmental science so this tool would fit well into a science unit. The goal of this lesson is for the students to create a very very basic map of their own. However, the lesson is only using a fraction of the tools in the program. So if a certain tech savvy student comes along they can really take this assignment and run. Its also very handy that the website is public so It would be possible for students work on this type of assignment at home.

Evaluation

The evaluation of this lesson will be very basic and essentially pass/fail. We want students to find this lesson and topic engaging and interesting so having a decent amount of wiggle room for evaluation is key. As well using new technology can be daunting and frustrating so keeping the stakes low is key for this assignment. Essentially if a student hands in a screenshot of their map with 2 layers added and legend that is a pass. If the student chooses to go beyond that, it is more than welcome. A low floor high ceiling is the motto of evaluation for this lesson.