Using GPS To Teach About Geography
Submitted by: TigerEye
For teachers, it is hard to stay in tune with the latest technology, now that things are running so fast. Here is a new way to teach geography using GPS that you will want to give to your students who will need to use it in the future.
GPS is a system maintained by the Department of Defense of the United States of America. It involves a system of twenty four satellites that race through space at a given speed of about seven thousand miles per hour. The information that these satellites display can be accessed by small inexpensive equipment. In fact, you can use one to tell you where you are in just about any place in the world, excepts underwater. At any given moment a GPS receiver can receive a signal from at least four of the satellites to pinpoint its location on the Earth.
As you can see, this can greatly increase the accuracy of those involved in geography and geographic jobs. Those who map the lesser travelled places of the planet can use GPS to completely track their whereabouts and retrace them to provide perfect maps of their travels. The small GPS device makes this possible, along with the orbiting satellites.
One of the first things to get therefore is one of the small hand held units that can receive signals from the orbiting satellites. You can take this along with you on a field trip or other geography event.
Getting started with GPS is not that hard once you get the hang of it. The first thing that is mentioned to use your hand held GPS unit is to let it get situated after you turn it on. This allows the unit to be more accurate. Make sure you turn it on in a place where the satellites can be seen without blockage. Outdoors is of course the best place because the metal in the wall of a building can block satellite signals.
The next step is to establish a waypoint. This is a point that is specified in the GPS unit. Some units will just need you to push a button for a few seconds to establish a waypoint. You can download waypoints from the unit to other programs and computers. The unit can converse with other digital machines and some can even send a text message using SMS services from phone companies.
Getting more advanced you can reveal to student how to track their movement and velocity with GPS. While doing this you create a "track" in the device you are using and then can retrace it later. Have you ever heard of virtual graffiti ? You can make your tracks big enough to be seen by software on their maps. This means you can walk out or drive out letters in the digital world of GPS and others can see or read them. How is that for new uses of technology ?
A first project for your students is to map out their neighborhood or countryside. This is going to be easy and fun. The elevation segment of GPS is not as reliable as regular point to point measurement, but it can still be taught right along with the rest of the lesson. Get a surveyor to help you teach your class how to use a barometric altimeter. This will provide the accuracy needed to completely map out a neighborhood that has tall buildings or mountains.
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