Dr. Gordon Cromley, Geographic Information Systems
Introductory Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
The outcome of my project is a reworked curriculum for Introduction to GIS. The GIS courses at Dickinson College have been historically tied to the laboratory sciences. This course revision, completed in the Valley & Ridge workshop, expands on that foundation by including a direct analysis of sustainability issues for graded assignments in the class. Roughly 55% of a student’s grade will come from activities related to exploring sustainability issues. While the learning goals and structure of the course remain the same, the content used to develop an understanding of GIS is now more closely aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG). Homework assignments will directly engage students with sustainability topics. These topics include solar energy, green spaces, and suitability analysis for agriculture. While core GIS concepts are covered in these assignments, the hope is that engaging with more ‘real world’ subject matter for an introduction to GIS class will help students to learn abstract GIS concepts more quickly. I believe these exercises find positive approaches to solutions for environmental and sustainability issues. The course culminates in a term project where students select a research question that they must then relate to a UNSDG. Students first submit a research topic and annotated bibliography for approval by the instructor; and, upon approval, will develop a story map to explore their research topic using GIS techniques. Student story maps will be stored on the ESRI cloud server for Dickinson College as a learning resource.