Teaching Map 3D at the High School Level

[bill0246]

I was approached by a teacher in our science department who is interested in starting a partnership with our drafting department. She wants to do a Geology class one period and have the students use/learn GIS software through our department in another period. Target students would be "top" 9th grade students enrolled in Geometry with a possible career goal in the Earth Sciences. Frankly, I am a bit apprehensive. The two of us (drafting teachers) currently teach AutoCAD, Revit, Inventor, and 3D Studio Max. The students pick up those softwares well. Neither of us are familiar with GIS software or have a Geography background. We wonder if the learning curve would be too much for a 14-15 year old student. We both liked the idea of the class and are both not afraid of tackling new software. I guess I am looking for some suggestions/comments as to what I am getting myself/our department into. My gut tell me it is a bit ambitious to teach GIS to high school students....

Input please!

Thanks

Bill Brown
Santiago High School
Corona, CA

[Jmurphy]

GO for it. Do it.... The High schools here are starting to get into teaching GIS. The only problem is they are using an Non-Autodesk product to do it. I'm hoping with the new program Autodesk has for education institutions that will change.

[ekubaskie]

I would agree - Autodesk product or not. In fact, I'd recommend ESRI's ArcMap at this time because Mako is not ready for prime time - and because ESRI has a huge market share. GIS is taking over many functions that were previously done in CAD. My office used to have 6 CAD people and 1 GIS. Today it's 4 GIS techs - and me.

I know both pretty well. I'm far better at CAD than GIS, but I have conentrated on using both, each for what it does best. ArcMap does analysis, theming, symbols, and labelling far more easily than Map 3D (so far), yet has abyssmal tools for drawing. So I create the geometry in CAD and export to GIS, or attach/import/transform data in GIS and import to CAD.

And I help our GIS techs with their layout skills and data quality, so we can be the best around, and avoid what I see as the biggest problem with GIS... that so much of what is being done is garbage. Data quality/accuracy is often poor, and there are a lot of GIS techs out there making a living who don't even know standard mapping symbology - much less how to lay out a sharp-looking map sheet, title block, etc.

The best favor you can do your students is to teach them both environments, particularly GIS with the CAD user's appreciation for accuracy of geometry and visual quality of output. Knowing both will make them more valuable as employees in either, and advance the state of the art in both.

[bill0246]

Thanks for the input. I am still unclear of which software to gravitate to..... I will research the different softwares and see who's using what and what's "progressive", idn demand, and user friendly.

Bill

[JeremiahM]

Since you are already an Autodesk shop I would stick with Map. It would be a great carry over for your other drafting students if they found interest in GIS and gives the GIS kids other opportunities’ in the CAD world if they don’t like GIS. A GIS program is really the way to go. In today’s business world GIS is king weather we know it or not. Facilities Management, Business Dynamics, Business Analytics, sales strategies, etc. are all based on location and data. I would hope to see more high schools doing this in the short term. The fundamentals of GIS are the same regardless of application: Node, Link, Polygon.

I think you will see your students having more fun with GIS than the mechanical and architectural applications (but a close tie with 3D Max)!

Jeremiah