Hello All,
This is Nick Gill, and my contribution to the groups’s Innovation theme is the activity in an Urban Geography unit that I created while teaching Explorations 11. The overall theme was building community by learning about the city in which the school was located.
I use the City of Burnaby’s online geographic information system (GIS), Burnaby Map to look at historic airphotos. The activity allows students to gain familiarity with the content available in GISs while allowing for historical analysis, compare/contrast, and basic airphoto analysis.
It is the last one mentioned, airphoto analysis, that was part of the literacy that was most developed during the activity. I was reminded that, while airphotographs have become ubiquitous, being able to interpret them is a language, a literacy, that is learned.
It is the last one mentioned, airphoto analysis, that was part of the literacy that was most developed during the activity. I was reminded that, while airphotographs have become ubiquitous, being able to interpret them is a language, a literacy, that is learned.
If you are working anywhere in Metro Vancouver, the Burnaby Map GIS can be used in an Urban Geography or Social Studies activity. My suggestion would be to have students use Skytrain Station locations, Metrotown, BCIT, or the SFU campus as locations for analysis and exploration. Even if they do not live in Burnaby, these locations are 'regional draws' that most students will be familiar with and will allow students to see changes over time.
If you will be teaching outside of Metro Vancouver, the Burnaby Map site is still useful, as it is one of only a few online GISs that have such a great range of orthorectified, geo-referenced historic airphotos.
Additionally, municipal GIS have a wealth of information that give much more information than is available on Google Maps or Google Earth.
The City of Burnaby online GIS can be found here.
My video about the process can be found below.
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