Geospatial Virtual Field Trips for New Zealand Schools
ISBN 978-85-88783-11-9
Authors
1O'malley, G.
1LAND INFORMATION NEW ZEALAND Email: gomalley@linz.govt.nz
Abstract
In 2012, Land Information New Zealand agreed to fund three geospatial Virtual Field Trips (VFT) over a period of three years to help school students improve their understanding of the spatial sciences as well as the associated career opportunities. The three year series of field trips were all focused on how geospatial or location information is being used to support the recovery and rebuild in Canterbury from earthquakes in 2011 and 2012. The rebuild relies on geospatial information – from understanding where underground infrastructures like electricity and water pipelines are, to information on property boundaries, land use and ownership. Each VFT takes place over three days. The first VFT took place in August 2012, the second in May 2013 and the third in August 2014. Virtual Field Trips use multimedia and web technologies to enable school students from participating schools to interact with inaccessible places and people without leaving their classrooms. The first field trip focussed on surveying technology for the measuring and mapping of land movement as well as understanding boundaries, land parcels and how land subdivisions are designed and constructed. The second field trip built on that foundation and described how the council’s consents process uses location-based information during the Canterbury rebuild. The field trip also explained aspects of hydrographic surveying, topographic mapping, aerial imagery and cartographic revision. The third field trip went into more detail about the capture and use of aerial imagery. School students had the opportunity to learn about 3D visualisation for buildings and urban areas and used open data to make Apps. Students also experienced capturing property information that is useful for councils and emergency services. The importance and historical significance of geographic names were explained in the context of local Maori and early European settlements. LINZ subject matter experts assisted during the third virtual field trip, along with Associate Professor Te Maire Tau, who is a member of the New Zealand Geographic Board Nga Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa. CORE Education, a Christchurch based education consultancy company, ran the three virtual field trips under its well-established LEARNZ programme. Over 90 per cent of New Zealand schools and almost 6,000 teachers are registered for this programme. New Zealand curriculum-related resources developed for three geospatial field trips are available for free at the LEARNZ website (www.learnz.org.nz) for schools to use when it suits them. There has been an enthusiastic response from teachers to the geospatial virtual field trips. Teachers say the relevance of the topics and having real life contexts the students can relate to is invaluable, and impresses upon them the importance of the spatial sciences across a range of activities. Teachers value the access to experts, the videos and photos as well as the online background notes for the trips that are easily able to be revisited for revision and extension. Recently Land Information New Zealand has committed to a fund a further series of three geospatial Virtual Field Trips over another period of three years. The commissioning of the geospatial virtual field trips for schools is part of a wider capability work programme that is being undertaken under the umbrella of the New Zealand Geospatial Strategy. The wider programme not only includes work with schools but work with tertiary institutions providing GIS courses and with industry to ensure sufficient capacity for New Zealand’s growing geospatial sector.