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Alloprof resources are a goldmine for K-12 education

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In 2021, Alloprof joined Esri Canada’s Partners in Education program to enrich its education resources using geographic information systems (GIS). Check out their apps!

By joining Esri Canada’s Partners in Education program in 2021, Alloprof benefits from a multitude of resources and tools to develop and enrich its educational content. Our partners in education also benefit from support and guidance from our team of specialists in elementary and secondary education. The objective of the program is to provide the necessary tools to organizations with K-12 educational programs, so that young people have access to as many resources and activities as possible.

Alloprof is committed to creating educational materials for students, teachers and parents. The organization also offers tools for ongoing support to help each student achieve academic success.

As of August 2023, the team in charge of Alloprof’s education content production in social learning has already developed over twenty apps to enhance their geography education files. Click here to check out their work: Alloprof Geography Resources (secondary 1 and 2) (in French only). You will find a link to the educational fact sheet that features each app with details on each item.

In the foreground, there is a figure consisting of a circle with a point at the top, to resemble hair, two arms and two legs. The figure is turquoise green. The figure is smiling with eyes closed. Both arms are raised in the air, and he looks cheerful. His left hand forms a peace sign with the index and middle fingers raised and the other fingers bent. The figure's body casts a shadow on the background. The background consists of the Alloprof web app, the title of which appears at top left: “Collection of Alloprof’s geography resources (secondary 1 and 2)”. Below the title, a magnifying glass reads “Enter search terms”; this is a search bar. At the same height, on the right, an icon made of four squares forms a square next to which is written “Grid”. Another icon has four small superimposed lines ranging from the longest to the shortest with a right margin next to which is written “Relevance”, and finally, a third icon has three superimposed lines of equal length each with a small notch on it, starting on the left on the top one, then on the right on the middle one and finally in the middle on the bottom one, next to which is written “Filter”. To the left, below the magnifying glass strip, search bar and icons, is “Element: 21”. The body of the app behind the character is composed of 12 cards separated into two rows of six each. The second row is only half visible lengthwise. Each card has an image showing a map of Québec, of Canada or of another place on the planet, depending on the theme covered by the app. Then, the title of the app is written. For example, the first app is entitled “H170 - Québec's Aboriginal Nations”. After the title is written “Instant Apps” with the green symbol for this app, then “Update” and a date followed by further details that are difficult to read.

Alloprof Geography Resources (secondary 1 and 2) (in French only) compiles the apps developed by Alloprof for the geography modules for secondary 1 and 2.

Interview with Alloprof’s education content production in social learning team

We asked Alloprof's social educational content production team a few questions about their thoughts on the integration of GIS in their educational modules.

How did GIS enrich Alloprof’s education resources?

Adding GIS to our content modules enables students to visualize the concepts presented and to "play" with the data. This allows abstract theoretical concepts to become more distinct with real data and events.

For example, in the module on cities subjected to natural risks (in French only), the student is informed that the vast majority of earthquakes occur at the boundaries of tectonic plates. By using the “Les séismes dans le monde entre 2018 et 2020” map, which is part of Les risques géologiques module (in French only), students can easily visualize this information. This can help them to better understand the subject and to remember it more easily.

What GIS projects are currently underway?

We are working on maintenance for the entire geography program for the first and second years of secondary school. As such, GIS will be included in all the modules as we complete the redesign. Eventually, they will also be included in History, but that's for later.

Which ArcGIS Online tools or apps did your team use?

We use ArcGIS Online to create maps from the data that we import from existing data in the Living Atlas. We also use different apps that are in the Instant Apps tool to help the students to navigate around their various maps. We really like the apps that allow us to add attachments so that we can add pictures of the places featured in our files, and the apps that allow us to create diagrams with the data. This gives students a different way of viewing the data.

How was your team’s experience with the GIS tools that are available to you?

In general, the new Map Viewer's interface is intuitive and a pleasure to work with. However, there are so many possibilities that we may not have tried out half of the tools available. That will come!

The various instant apps are also easy to use and to customize. We appreciated having access to layers of data developed by other institutions specializing in different fields. This enabled us to obtain reliable information and data. Such information would have been difficult, if not impossible, to recreate on our own.

We would like to thank Alloprof’s social educational content production team for sharing their GIS experiences with us. We are keeping a close eye on the development of new projects.

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We are always available to answer your questions. Write to us at k12@esri.ca.

If you wish to start on your GIS adventure, visit our website to obtain free access for you and your students: k12.esri.ca.

For more activity ideas and a wide range of resources, visit our K12 Resource Finder.