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What to do for the end of the school year?

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Here are various options for your year-end activities! Whether you are introducing your students to geographic information systems (GIS), or to recapture the new map viewer or trying out a new activity where you collect data outdoors, you are sure to find something to do.

The students are excited and are eager to run around outside. The subject matter has been reviewed over and over again and we are seeking challenging yet educational projects to finish the year in a dynamic way. This is the time to implement new activities, explore new avenues and try something different.

Take this opportunity to start your GIS adventure!

We have several tutorials designed for the students to discover geographic information systems (GIS) in a practical and stimulating way.

The image is divided into two sections. On the left, on a black background, it says: Enroute with ArcGIS Online - (New) Map Viewer, An introduction to ArcGIS Online for K-12 students, Esri Canada Education and Research. On the right we see a person with a red windbreaker type waterproof coat; with her hood on her head and she wears a black backpack; her back is to us. She holds in her hands a historical-style map on which it is written: Get out of town. She stands in a dense vegetation of shrubs, ferns, and other plants that reach to about chest level. She appears to be on a cliff facing falls; these occupy the entire background part of the image.

Enroute with ArcGIS Online has three tutorials that will introduce your students to GIS.

En route with ArcGIS Online provides three tutorials that will introduce your students to GIS in a fun way.

  1. Discover ArcGIS Online teaches them to find locations, to change basemaps, to use bookmarks and to experiment with clustering tools while manipulating data related to Canadian railway stations.
  2. Discover data teaches them to add information to a map with a design layer, to find data by searching in the Living Atlas and to change the symbolization of Canadian greenhouse gas emissions to better highlight the data contained in the layer.
  3. Configure Pop-Ups teaches them to customize the content in pop-ups in a layer of data featuring twenty years of humpback whale observations in the estuary and St. Lawrence Gulf, for example by editing the title, extracting the data from the attributes table and adding a photo to the text. This tutorial will also allow them to use short scripts, introducing them to programming.

Would you perhaps prefer to select a class project that will take you outside?

At the top right, the letter i is circled. Written on the right of this is: Photos by  MabelAmber, Jasmin Sessler, Anna Shvets, Markus Spiske and OSPAN ALI. Centered on the width of the image and in the lower half on the height of the image, we read the following text: Quels sont ces déchets? (What is this trash?) How clean is your neighbourhood? Esri Canada | Education & Research. Behind the text, the image has five distinct photos,two superimposed on the left, one in the center and two superimposed on the right. On the left, you see a crow holding an orange peel in its beak. Beside it, you see some packaging (wax paper and aluminum foil) on the ground, on asphalt). This looks like fast food waste. At the bottom-left of the photo, you see a plastic cup (red outside, white inside) and a paper towel (fast food type) lying on the grass with autumn leaves in various shades of brownish yellow. Next to the cup is a plastic lid through which you see a plastic straw. This all appears to be trash that was left on the ground. In the middle photo, you see the arm of a person with dark skin in the foreground, covered by a denim jacket sleeve, wearing a rubber glove and holding a transparent plastic bottle. Blurred on the right side, there seems to be a black trash bag. In the background, you see legs wearing beige pants. The background is blurred. You can see that the persons are on a grassy area and that there is trash on the ground. The photo on the top right shows an old squashed transparent plastic bottle with a red rim. It is lying on a grassy surface with small wooden sticks and petals mixed with green and brownish blades of grass. The photo on the bottom right is kind of murky, the damp area could be a marsh. There is grass and water. You can also see a lot of trash that is difficult to identify. There appears to be, among other things, plastic bags, PVC pipes, packaging, etc.

The class project What is this trash (Quels sont ces déchets?) will help you to collect data on the condition of the neighbourhood surrounding your school.

We recommend Quels sont ces déchets? (What is this trash? in French only). This resource will guide you in the development of a project where students observe and collect data on the condition of the neighbourhood surrounding your school. You can conduct the project as it is presented, completing the steps one by one, or use this project as guide to create your own! In addition to being fun and dynamic, this project give your students the chance to use their creativity, their critical thinking, their sense of observation and analytical skills.

Your Toolbox

We are always available to answer your questions. Write to us at k12@esri.ca.

If you wish to start on your GIS adventure, visit our web site to obtain free access for you and your students: k12.esri.ca.

For more activity ideas and a wide range of resources, visit our K12 Resource Finder.