Power of Data Project

The POD Team also received a grant from  NSF’s Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers  program ( DRL 0929846 ) called Examining your Environment through the Power of Data (EYEPOD) with a focus on helping teams of career/technical education, math, and science teachers teach with project based instruction and geospatial technologies, all with the goal of increasing student learning and awareness of and interest in STEM careers. Educators were immersed in professional learning, beginning with an intensive summer institute that totaled more than 100 hours during the first year. A one-week “basic” version of the program was offered in June, 2011 in addition to two 5-day Advanced Summer Institutes originally planned for continuing teacher-participants. In total, this program reached 37 teachers in Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Oregon, and Virginia. Results showed improvement in content knowledge, spatial skills, and scientific reasoning skills for teachers and their students.

EYEPOD, which was offered as a summer program, and NAzPOD, which was offered during the academic year, were compared in  Professional Development Integrating Technology: Does Delivery Format Matter ? Lessons learned from our study contributed to the growing body of evidence that geospatial technology supports student learning and provides an opportunity for students to learn through authentic problems. The structure of the PD model had little impact on student or teacher learning based on our sample size, but follow-up meetings in the academic year group did provide teachers support and incentive to complete the program and implement lessons with students.

In 2013, the POD Project created an open, self-paced, online course:  Developing Project Based Instructional Units Utilizing ArcGIS Online , allowing the program to reach teachers nationwide. The 40-hour course is still available today, though it is not actively managed. It includes five modules: 1) introduction to project-based learning; 2) planning for student assessment; 3) mapping the project; 4) resource preparation and managing the process; and 5) final presentation of the unit.

We followed POD Teachers to see if their teaching practices persisted. You can read about their stories in the  CITE Special Issue: Geospatial Technologies in Teacher Education, Persistent Teaching Practices After Geospatial Technology Professional Development  . 

In 2013,  NSF’s Advanced Technological Education program  funded Geospatial Connections promoting Advancement to Careers and Higher Education ( DUE 1304872 ), a collaboration with  Mesa Community College , to see if the successful model could be transferred to college courses. The project offered basic and advanced faculty development workshops to high school, two-year and four-year college faculty. Educators participated in a 35-hour Beginning Institute and an additional 35-hours of Advanced Institutes with a focus on teaching with GIS.

Evaluation demonstrated that workshops were successful. Most educators increased their GST skills. Participants implemented lessons across Arizona, many in rural, low income and diverse learning environments. Most of the lessons were aligned with standards in the field, and provided opportunity for high level applied skill development, using real world spatial datasets to make claims about a topic or question.

Over 1700 high school, community college and university students had opportunities to experience GST in lessons and increased opportunities to practice 21st century skills through this program. After participating in lessons, college students significantly increased their awareness of GST careers, their capability of using maps and spatial datasets to analyze data, and their ability to make a claim based on spatial data, demonstrating the potential for GST-integrated, project-based lessons to improve student outcomes. Similar outcomes for high-school students were less successful, likely due to shorter course times for project participation.

GEOCACHE created additional sustaining mechanisms to support current and future educators’ objectives to integrate GST into the classroom as an instructional toolset. GEOCACHE partnered with the  Arizona Geographic Alliance  to offer three-day residential summer geospatial education workshops across the state.

Additionally, the project initiated a statewide GIS Education User Conference (AZ GIS EdUC) and an Educators’ GIS user group (AZ EdG). Two AZ GIS EdUC statewide conferences were held.

Also in 2013, the  Center for Science Teaching and Learning  and the  Geospatial Research and Information Lab  at Northern Arizona University partnered with the  Arizona Geographic Information Council  and the  Arizona Geographic Alliance  to obtain an  Esri statewide GIS site license for K12 schools and youth organizations .

The collective programs known as the POD Project were recognized by Change the Equation as an accomplished STEMWorks program in 2013.The collective programs known as the POD Project were recognized by Change the Equation as an  accomplished STEMWorks program  in 2013.

In 2015, NSF’s ITEST program funded the  POD Project team  to take the program to national scale using a facilitator development approach to reach teachers nationwide ( DRL 1513287 ). Teachers learned to enhance existing lessons using Geospatial Inquiry. The goal was to increase student opportunities to reason with data, and in turn increase interest in science and technology and careers in these fields. We studied the PD model's ability to transfer to new contexts .

For our efforts since 2009, in 2015 the POD Project was honored to accept an Esri Special Achievement in GIS  Award . 

Talented teacher educators from across the country came to Northern Arizona University to attend the POD Facilitation Academy. As partners in our design-based research project, they provided valuable feedback which helped us revise and improve POD Teacher Workshops.

We learned that when scaling an innovation, selecting and adequately preparing facilitators with specialized training to ensure they understand the principles of the model is critical. This enables implementation integrity while retaining flexibility to modify for their contexts.

POD contributed to understanding pedagogical methods relating to integration of GST into the classroom, strategies that support that integration, and the impact on student interest in science, technology, and careers in these fields.

Critical components of GST-integrated PD identified include highly-qualified facilitators, opportunities to learn with GST, time to reflect on the process of learning, time to design and plan lessons, and to consider implications for teaching, including assessment. Learning to teach with GST is socially constructed and interactions with facilitators and other teacher participants are necessary for learning.

The POD PD model  prepared teachers  with GST skills and pedagogical knowledge to design and implement lessons aligned with research-based instructional practices.

Lessons provided students  opportunities  to engage in the analysis and interpretation of data for the purpose of explaining a phenomenon, answering a question, or solving a problem. Pedagogical practices persisted one to two years after the program ended.

Implementation of high-quality Geospatial Inquiry lessons have the potential to  broaden participation in STEM . Students who reported that critical thinking skills improved as a result of participating in Geospatial Inquiry lessons increased interest in science and technology, technology careers, and in science careers. Geospatial Inquiry lessons had a significant impact on students who are traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields. Female students reported higher engagement in science and higher interest in science careers. Students who identified as Black or Hispanic reported higher engagement in science and technology.