GIS in the Non-GIS Classroom: Using Student Mapping Assignments to Incorporate GIS in Traditional Lecture Classes

Abstract

Over the past generation, the use of geographic information systems (GIS) applications has skyrocketed, and GIS hardware and software are now used for daily decision making by countless organizations (Abeyta 2021). In academia, a further focus on GIScience has aided the theoretical framework for a more focused GIS curriculum. Unsurprisingly, GIS is also increasing its foothold in US education. In US higher education, both the number of GIS courses offered and the total number of GIS-specific degrees earned are on the rise. A recent report noted that programs using the federal CIP codes for “GIScience and Cartography” are rapidly growing. Since 2019, more master’s degrees have been earned under the “GIScience and Cartography” CIP code than all other “Geography” programs (American Association of Geographers 2022). The total number of bachelor’s degrees with the “GIScience and Cartography” code has more than doubled since the mid-2010s. In US secondary-level education, individual GIS course offerings, though rare, are increasing (Bednarz 2004; Kerski, Demirci, and Milson 2013). Meanwhile, extracurricular programs such as EAST or Project Lead the Way can offer GIS exposure to thousands of secondary students, and a national movement for high school GIS may be eventually met by the proposed AP course in GIS technology. The role of GIS in education is vital. Geospatial skills have been shown to correlate with improved performance of general spatial thinking (Lee and Bednarz 2009) as well as specific geography-related content (Hall-Wallace and McAuliffe 2002). As students are exposed to more GIS, they gain skills that are desired by a growing number of employers. This is not a flash-in-theplan approach of describing the utility of GIS; even forward-looking projections by the US Department of Labor are certain of the rosy future of geotechnology’s applications for decades to come (Gerwin 2004).