Global Positioning System (GPS)

[Lori Holcomb]

Here are links to two short videos (obtained from http://www.open-video.org) that explain exactly what GPS is, and how it works:

NASADestinationTomorrow - DT11 - GPS
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7848920444891044134&q=N...
3 min 35 sec - Oct 27, 2003

NASASciFiles - How Does GPS Work
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6164350560364300786&q=g...
4 min 26 sec - May 18, 2005

The US Geological Survey has a great website on Educational Resources for GPS. “GPS is an excellent, multidisciplinary, inquiry-driven, field-based, standards-based tool applicable to many subjects, including mathematics, geography, earth science, environmental studies, and more.”
http://education.usgs.gov/common/lessons/gps.html


Discussion question: What are some of the ways you might employ GPS in your classroom?

[Kay Pitchford]

I could do an even better job of teaching geography to my students by incorporating some of the Google Earth tools. Although I have to admit that when my husband showed it to me, I was only shocked and angry, because there was a picture of our house with our cars in the driveway, pinpointed at street level, for the world to see. I thought it was an awful invasion of privacy, and I still do.
However, I have looked at some of the sample lesson plans and links, and I could use Google Earth to further bring our stories to life by locating the setting and letting the students take a closer look at the terrain or buildings. We could take a tour of every location we read about, and I could incorportate other subjects, like the Math in Las Vegas lesson I previewed. By using this tool, learning would become more connected to real life, and ,hopefully, help close achievement gaps and create students who are much more knowledgeable about the world around them.

[Karen Hughes]

Kay I agree with you. It is a real shock the first time you realize you can be located so easily. Providing pictures of your home and personal surrounding does seem to get very close to invasion of privacy. I am afraid this will only get worse with technology improving every day.

Karen

[Jennifer Tingen]

Both of you are mentioning a great point about privacy. I think this points to another lesson for our students: when they realize how easily they can be located, they are better able to understand the concept of audience through a 21st century lens. They can see, right there in class, just how wonderful and scary the Internet can be. This could lead to a great number of historical discussions (such as Big Brother and the concept of freedom). How free are we if someone knows our every move? How invasive should governments become in the name of protection?

[Jennifer Cable]

What are some of the ways you might employ GPS in your classroom? I teach computers and would love to have some GPS units for my classroom. First, I would like to show the students how GPS works and the technology involved. I always love to show and demonstrate the latest technology to my students. I think that students need to be exposed to the latest gadgets available because they are going to be using them one day. It would be a great way to do a lesson on satellites and the earth’s orbit. Next, I would create a scavenger hunt around the school which they would complete using the GPS. I think having them go to different locations to located clues around the school would be a great learning tool. A GPS could be used to teach students directions such as north, south, east, and west. It could also be use to teach students about distance because a GPS will keep track of how far you traveled, how long you have traveled, your current speed, and estimated time of arrival. You could develop higher-order thinking skills by having the students estimate how far a certain distance is and then using the GPS to calculate the accurate distance. You can use it to teach students how to read a map and locate items on the map. It could be used to teach students latitude and longitude.

[Lauren Philbeck]

How I would use these programs in my classroom:

-While reading a story, show students what part of the world the story is taking place. This would help them understand why some elements of the story may differ from events, things in their life. They would also be able to see how close or far away the setting of the story is from where they live.

-It would be great to use in math lessons. We could talk about distance and bring word problems to life.

-When studying people, famous or not, we could see where they live and talk about if this influenced their writing.

-For science, we could see why certain things grow or do not grow in parts of the world

[Karen Hughes]

Lauren I really like your science activity. It would also be very beneficial to let students look at different parts of the world and the different climates. Seeing is a lot better than just reading about something.

Karen

[Zeynep Yurtseven]

Due to I was a Math Teacher, I thought about math classes. I watched the video, and read about `how the GPS works` at http://education.usgs.gov/common/lessons/gps.html. I think the explanation of the way it works is can help a high school math teacher to teach anlytic geometry a lot. It is all about mathematical rules what we teach in analytic geometry. I do not know in which grade American students learn analytic geometry, but we are learning n high school in first or second year.

[Joyce Boone]

Hi everyone, I teach business courses online to adults. However, I see similarities in how I could use GPS technology in my classrooms and the K-12 classroom. In the K-12 classroom that uses the Internet, GPS technology could be used to identify the locations of the students, particularly if the students are from different parts of the county, town, or state. This could be a fun and useful exercise early on in the class as students become acquainted with each other.

In my current classes, we are studying various aspects of the global economy and exploring how many U.S. companies have offices and departments located internationally. One fun and informative activity could be for the student to choose a U.S. company that has international operations and prepare a project that indicates the geographical location of its U.S. and international offices.

As a result of the various readings and studies about business leaders, students often develop an interest in a CEO or executive of a particular organization. When we study the lives and careers of various business executives, students could be given the task of selecting a company CEO and creating a Google map or similar map, tracing that person's life and career from his or her birthplace, where they went to college or interned, worked, and ultimately where they currently live and/or work. This would provide everyone with the opportunity to use the technology as well as learn about several business executives' career histories.

Joyce

[Kelly Maxwell]

Since I want to teach social studies I am very interested in how these technologies can be used in the classroom. I have taken several classes that have delt with technology in social studies. I really like how Google Earth and Google Maps can be used to take virtual field trips and allow students to use the images to better understand geography and historical sites. I think that geocaching could be a unique way to incorporate GPS systems into the classroom, because it helps students be able to go on a scavenger hunt around campus. By dividing the class into small groups they could use clues that were provided in order to use the GPS in order to find the next clues. They would have to answer a question or a find the clue that would take them to the next clue until they eventually finish the assignment. This is just a way in whcih GPS could be used in the classroom.

[Veronica Lewis]

I talk about GPS technology in my classroom in terms of career opportunities. Design, implementation and maintenance of these emerging systems seem to interest my students. Cars, cell phones, smart chips and computers are just a few of the items that can contain a GPS system to make our lives easier. I have a Garmin device for my vehicle so I bring it to the classroom and we map out different locations to determine travel time and different routes. As a business professional, time is truly of the essence and if you can use it to your advantage, it may be the difference between success and failure. My students like any type of technology and want to know more about what it can do to make their lives easier.

[Rhonda W]

I really struggled with this question. First, it was hard to focus only on GPS. Several of our readings talked about how people confuse GPS and GIS and I have to admit I was one of those people. GPS alone is much more limiting. Second, while I could easily see applications for integrated activities in elementary classrooms or for science and social studies classes, it was more difficult to think of ways this technology could be used in secondary Career and Technical Education.

Basically, if I am limited only to GPS, I don't really see any applications that truly add something of value to a CTE class. I can come up with ideas for activities, but it just seems like they are busy work that doesn't really contribute anything to student mastery of course objectives.

On the other hand, if I can incorporate GPS and GIS technology as well as several of the other geographic systems our readings talk about, it begins to make more sense. For example, if I am teaching Small Business Entrepreneurship, one of the outcomes of the class is to develop a business plan for a product or organization. Students could plot the coordinates of similar businesses within a certain radius and layer them in a map that also includes information about the characteristics of the population. Their analysis could talk about how the proposed business is strategically located in a way that will facilitate access by members of the target population. If I am teaching construction (BTW, fat chance, I can't even hammer a nail in straight), I could have students map housing prices in a certain area and analyze how those prices impact the type of house that should be proposed. If I'm teaching Health Occupations, students could look at the interaction of distance from a health care facility, number of health care professionals in an area, and infant death rates to make recommendations for changing health care.

I can really see how these sorts of projects can be used through collaboration in different classrooms, say Health Occupations and Science, Construction and Math, or Small Business and Language Arts. They could also be used easily in Advanced Studies, which is available in all CTE program areas, or could be integrated into Graduation Projects.

As I've said with practically every technology we've talked about all semester, I think it is really important to start with the course objectives and see how the technology can help instead of starting with a cool technology and somehow making it fit.

[Karen Hughes]

What are some of the ways you might employ GPS in your classroom?

I have used GPS in my Computer Applications I classes and the students loved it. I divided the students into 4 member teams. “Remember GPS uses 4 satellites to determine your position on Earth.” I started the Geocache hunt by giving each team a different question to answer. I set up 5 main caches with 4 parts each, around the school campus. Each part of the cache provided one clue to the main activity question and the coordinates to the next part of the cache. When the students locate all 4 parts of their cache, they use the clues to solve their question. The students really enjoyed this activity. They asked to trade questions with a different group so they could locate their clues.

Karen