Geospatial Explorers: Integrating Spatial Reasoning across the Curriculum in Puerto Rico

About This Grant

Spatial skills are an essential foundation for success in STEM fields, yet spatial skills are not explicitly taught in school. One powerful technological tool for teaching spatial skills is Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The Geospatial Explorers project builds upon the successful Geospatial Semester program (GSS) at James Madison University and at the Chicago Public Schools. GSS uses GIS to support students in their development of geospatial problem-solving skills and the application of those skills to extended local problems that they self-select. Prior research has shown that using GIS for problem solving can facilitate spatial habits of mind and can increase the foundational reasoning and argumentation skills that are seen as critical for STEM success. Moreover, exposure to just one GIS unit can significantly increase students' spatial reasoning abilities and increase student interest in pursuing STEM careers. The Geospatial Explorers project aims to expand on the success of GSS by co-developing, implementing, and studying the impact of four GIS technology-enhanced curricular units per year in each of Career and Technical Education (CTE) business, science, social studies, and health classes in high schools in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. The Geospatial Explorers project will collaborate with the regional director of the Mayaguez region of Puerto Rico to identify and support high schools that can enact GIS across all four disciplines. The Geospatial Explorers professional development model will not only support implementation of this program but also support implementation of any program where students are exploring publicly available datasets. The project will directly impact 40 teachers and approximately 2,400 students in this region. Additionally, collaboration with and dissemination through the Luquillo Long-Term Ecological Research education network and the Puerto Rico Department of Education will extend the reach of the program to potentially thousands of more students across different school contexts. The primary goal of the GIS+X project is to validate a localized version of the Geospatial Explorers model adapted from a previous model of geospatial learning involving GIS technology-enhanced curriculum and professional development. The project will investigate the efficacy of the Geospatial Explorers model in supporting an accumulation of knowledge and skills related to spatial reasoning across different disciplines among high school students in Puerto Rico. It will also examine the extent to which participation in GIS technology-enhanced lessons across different disciplines impacts high school students' interest in pursuing STEM careers. In addition to examining these student-level outcomes, the research will involve a systems-level examination of the levels of support and education system infrastructure necessary for successful implementation of GIS technology-enhanced curriculum and the expanded professional development model in the Mayaguez region of Puerto Rico. Geospatial Explorers units will integrate GIS technology and be co-created to address six design principles: engaging student-driven inquiry, creating meaningful experiences to address local issues, foregrounding spatial reasoning, connecting to disciplinary content, and creating a collaborative community of learners. The Learning for Use framework will provide a means to powerfully sequence the units throughout the year by motivating course topics, constructing spatial skills and disciplinary understanding, and refining the application of those skills and disciplinary understanding to the development of projects that address local problems. The project involves partnerships with both academic institutions and industry. To promote interest in STEM careers among participating high school students, partners will provide GIS mentors in CTE business, science, social studies, and health. Mentors will serve as role models, share their experiences in STEM and its relation to their discipline, and co-host discipline-specific showcases of students' final projects. This project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.