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Engage youth in their learning with ArcGIS

Published Date
Author Angela Alexander

Let’s discover how ArcGIS tools are being used by K-12 students in Canada. This blog post will highlight some of the cool ways teachers have used ArcGIS Online, Survey123, Dashboards and Story Maps in their teaching and for student learning.

Imagine interactive tools that engage students in their learning but are also used by professionals in different sectors in Canada and around the world. Well, this collection of tools is part of ArcGIS Online and they include ArcGIS StoryMaps, ArcGIS Survey123 and ArcGIS Dashboards. All of them are available for free to K-12 students and teachers in Canada.

Discover how they are being used in classrooms to inquire and learn about topics that are tied to curricula, to collect and analyse data, and much more. Let’s explore some of these stories that will inspire your work in 2022!

Mobilizing Indigenous Knowledge with ArcGIS at the SNP STEAM Academy
Find out how educators at the Six Nations Polytechnic (SNP) STEAM Academy are using ArcGIS to teach Indigenous history and geography to their students. Read more about ArcGIS use by Indigenous youth.

A map showing different coloured polygons that represent the traditional territory of the 5 nations of the Hodinohso:ni people.

Kaiya Davis, a grade 9 Hodinohso:ni student from Six Nations created this map showing the pre-contact traditional territory of the five original nations of the Hodinohso:ni people and The Haldimand Tract which was the land promised to the Hodinohso:ni people after being displaced from their lands during the American Revolution.

Collect and present data on a topic around your school with ArcGIS
Discover how a teacher from Quebec has used ArcGIS to engage his students in a data collection activity to explore a common topic around the world.

This image shows the survey that was used for the data collection by the students. The background shows a pile of cloth masks.

The survey used to collect data on discarded masks found in public spaces.

Discover student projects that dive into important issues using ArcGIS
Teachers are using ArcGIS to engage students in learning about current issues. Discover projects that two passionate teachers have done with their students.

This image shows a map with the locations of their water quality investigation and a pop-up with a picture of a student collecting a water sample.

This is a story map showing the locations Natasha’s students visited as part of the water quality investigation around Nanaimo. Each point has a pop-up that shows a picture taken at the location, and the results for that location from the survey. The image in this pop-up shows a grade 9 student collecting water quality data at Lost Lake, Nanaimo.

Teacher Tony Cushman taking field work to the next level with ArcGIS
Tony Cushman is an elementary teacher from Toronto, Ontario who completed a school-wide project with his grade three students using ArcGIS. Find out what the project was about and how he incorporated cross-curricular learning using some of the most popular ArcGIS tools available to K-12 schools in Canada.

This image shows 2 kids smiling at the camera. One has a laptop on her lap with the ArcGIS Dashboards present that she created.

Students proudly showing the charts they created using ArcGIS Dashboards (formally Operations Dashboards).

Looking for more stories? Check out our Inspiration story map covering more examples of great work done by students in Canada and look out for more stories in 2022!

Do you have a story to share? Send an email to us at k12@esri.ca.

Have you been using ArcGIS Online and want to learn more about other ArcGIS tools? Go to our Resource Finder to access tutorials to get started.

New to ArcGIS Online?

If you are new to ArcGIS Online, educators can request an account at k12.esri.ca/#access.

Check out the following beginner resources to get started with ArcGIS Online:

For Educators - Let’s get started with ArcGIS Online

For Students – Enroute with ArcGIS Online

This post was translated to French and can be viewed here.

About the Author

Angela Alexander is a K-12 Education Specialist in the Esri Canada Education and Research group. She has over 15 years of experience working with educators across Canada. Angela focuses on producing geographic information system (GIS) and curriculum-specific resources, and conducting and creating custom workshops for educators. She manages the GIS Ambassador Program and is the Technical Chair for the annual Skills Ontario GIS competition. Angela also writes monthly posts for the Esri Canada Education and Research blog, highlighting K-12 educators and partners, new ArcGIS resources and GIS-related events.

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