5 GIS activities to try before September

August 2, 2017

Angela Alexander

Are you looking for GIS ideas for the fall? Well this is a perfect time to try some new activities before the new school year. In this blog post, you will discover some fun and interesting activities that can help to integrate GIS into your teaching and to engage your students!

With summer in full swing, you may still be thinking about some of the things you want to integrate into your teaching this school year. Here are 5 great GIS related activities that will help to engage your students in and out of the classroom:

Create a survey – Using the Survey123 for ArcGIS, you can submit data and create a web map to share survey results. A survey can be used to collect information about something specific such as information on what people did over the summer, where they are from in the world or the condition of trees on your school property.
Create a story map to highlight a topic that interests you. In class, this can be used by your students to present the findings of a project, or you can use it to create a summary of a unit. Explore some of the story maps created by the Esri Canada Education and Research group.

Canadian GIS Applications story map as inspired by examples posted in the article "1000 GIS Applications & Uses - How GIS Is Changing the World."

3. Try Snap2Map to create a community liveability study. Students examine the walkability of the area, the access to public transportation, the presence of bike lanes, the access to sidewalks, the presence of green space, the types of buildings and the types of land use in your community.

4. Check out Web AppBuilder – It’s easy to create your first app! You can build the apps you need using ready-to-use widgets, and you can customize the look of your apps with configurable themes.

5. Try out an online course using your ArcGIS Online account. My Esri Training is a great site to find free e-learning resources to get you started with ArcGIS Online or to continue your GIS journey. If you’re currently an ArcGIS Online user with a subscription, sign into the training site to access training seminars, web courses, lessons, geoinquiries and much more!

If you are new to ArcGIS Online, sign up for a free education account today, and try out our introductory tutorials: