GIS Used in Geography Classes

Geography classes in Nova Scotia have gone high-tech, with students using computers and data from geographic information systems to study population trends, climate change, acid rain and many other topics. The partnership that brings this technology into classrooms was marked at a celebration today, World GIS Day.

Geographic information systems -- or GIS -- store, retrieve, manipulate and display information about places. Students in junior and senior high classrooms across the province are using four CDs of Nova Scotia GIS data on roads, municipal boundaries, watersheds and more to survey and respond to their geographic world.

"I like the concept of students working with information from their own backyards," said Helen McWilliams, a Grade 10 and 12 geography teacher at Sackville High School. "These CDs with city and provincial information heighten the students' learning experience because the information is relevant -- it's from a world they understand."

The Nova Scotia Geomatics Centre at Service Nova Scotia and Municipal Relations struck an agreement with the Department of Education to provide data for classroom use. Through this Nova Scotia GIS Agreement, the centre provided all the provincial data for the department to produce and distribute the first of the four CDs to 181 junior and senior high schools. Students at the Centre of Geographic Sciences at the Nova Scotia Community College also lent a hand in preparing the data for classroom use.

"This project relies on partnership between departments and municipalities to support our young people's education," said Angus MacIsaac, Minister of Service Nova Scotia and Municipal Relations. "The data used in this project was 25 years in the making. To purchase a single licence would cost $40,000. Thanks to our partnership approach, this fee has been waived."

Halifax Regional Municipality shared its data with the centre so that it could also be given to the Department of Education through the agreement. Schools are now getting three additional CDs with highly detailed information about the region. Other municipalities are now considering doing the same with GIS data from their regions.

"I am pleased that students throughout Halifax Regional Municipality will have accurate and up-to-date information about their municipality through the geographic information system," said Peter Kelly, Mayor of Halifax Regional Municipality. "The students who will use this system are the leaders of tomorrow, and the better informed they are, the better they will be prepared to help forge a prosperous and strong municipality."

The partners in the project were presented with certificates of appreciation during an event celebrating World GIS Day today and Geography Awareness Week from Nov. 11 to 16. Students across the province are also marking with week with a study of pH levels in Nova Scotia's watersheds. They are using the GIS data to locate bodies of water in their areas so they can take samples, enter their findings into a provincial database and create a map of pH levels in the province's water.

"We've invested millions in technology for Nova Scotia classrooms so that students can learn in innovative ways," said Education Minister Jane Purves. "We have all this information at our fingertips within government. It only makes sense to make it available as a learning tool for students."

The GIS data can be used for more than just geography classes. Students in global studies, environmental studies and the new Canadian history course can also use the data. For example, history students can use the data to lay a modern map of the Canso Causeway over a map from the 1940s to compare the geographic and population changes over time.