Geographical Information System (GIS) Resources

GIS Resources, what?! Well, we’re quite keen on GIS here at GlobalGeek; one of our writers, Natasha, is a GIS Ambassador. Anyway, in this post I’ll list, and try to update, resources that might help in the classroom. If you’ve got any suggestions, drop them in the comments box.

This post will be broken down into:

• Ready to go Classroom Resources: Someone else has done the work, you can just load it in your browser.
• Fun/Random activities.
• Data Sources: data to add, using your software.
• GIS Software: i.e. you need to add the information. We have a separate post to help K-12 educators with using GIS in the classroom.

Ready to go Classroom Resources

I’ll give a selection of ready to go resources, but there will be many I miss, so check the general resources when you have the time.

General

• ArcGIS StoryMaps
• Google Earth Timelapse – 35 years of global satellite images in a time lapse!
• Knight Lab StoryMaps
• Google Earth Education

By Subject

Science

• Benefits of Birds on the Farm
• Ebola Outbreaks 1976 – 2015

History

• StoryMap: On Foot in the Path of the Silk Road
• The Two Koreas: Uneasy Asian neighbours
• WWII: One Man’s War
• International Borders: 1812 and 2013
• Battlefields of the Civil War

Geography

• International Borders: 1812 and 2013
• FEMA Hurricane Incident Journal
• Nigeria in Crisis

Economics

• Affording the American Dream?
• Housing Affordability in the US

Languages

• Placing Oral Histories

Fun/Random Activities

• GeoGuessr – A game to guess a location based on a streetview image, a fun game if broken into groups.
• GeoCaching – Hunt for hidden boxes all over the world, they’re everywhere!
• Teacher GIS Project Ideas – Looking for something to teach GIS with?
• What3Words – Give your location in 3 words?!

Data

• ESRI ArcGIS Rest Services
• Open Street Map
• Open Street Cam
• CanadianGIS.com – Links for hundreds of data sources, including by province. I’m not going to repeat their work!
• Statistics Canada
• USGS Earth Explorer – Free satellite images and more
• NASA Earthdata
• NOAA Data Access Viewer

Software

I made a blog dedicated to GIS for the classroom, giving my thoughts on how to present GeoSpatial data in the classroom, and a few other things, so if you’re looking to create something, look there. But I will give links to appropriate software on this article:

• Recommended for Beginner: Google Earth Web (no install required)
• Recommended for Intermediate: Google Earth Pro (install required)
• Recommended for Professional: Quantum GIS (QGIS)

• ArcGIS/ArcPro by ESRI (Paid, maybe free in your location)
• Time Mapper – Timelines and Maps from spreadsheets
• StoryMap JS – Create your own StoryMaps