EDUCATORS’ SUPPLEMENT

    WETMAAP provides student-ready applications of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) using the World Wide Web as the delivery system. Educators who explore the rich and varied materials available to them through these materials will find the activity and investigation options limited only by the time available.

    To aide in planning, WETMAAP gives classroom educators a partial listing of the appropriate National Standards from the fields of Geography, Science, and Mathematics. While the project has been developed specifically for the middle school/junior high environment, it may easily be used in high school curricular areas.

    Applicable teaching strategies include:

• guided inquires
• open-ended inquires
• cooperative group learning
• independent research
• study stations
• student assessment

    Aerial photography, satellite imagery, topographic maps, and National Wetland Inventory maps are used for activities that follow the pattern of change caused by human and natural processes within each study area. Visual representation and applied knowledge are effective ways for the learner to "see" and then to interpret and understand the themes of wetland loss, restoration, maintenance, and preservation.

    It would be easy to see each map and images found in WETMAAP as simply a picture. Students will develop map reading skills as they spend time investigating these materials and answering the questions that arise while they view the images such as what processes can be seen? and what has changed during the time of study?.

    The data sets will become resources and tools for developing a better understanding and awareness of the physical world and its changes. Students actively engaged in the use of GIS will collect data — not just select it from a test book that they are assigned to read and work from— and therefore come to appreciate the importance of data quality.

    Using the items from the materials list, low-cost GIS process of color correlation techniques, and copies of the map products used in WETMAAP, participants may develop their own exercises for regional sites. WETMAAP introduces GIS technology into the learning arena and encourages open-ended exploration of information and data.