Geography teachers use new technology

At least 60 teachers are being trained in the program each year.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Gone are the days when geography class was all about memorizing state capitals.
Students today are using infrared sensors and global positioning systems to better understand the earth, and Ohio educators are heading back into the classroom themselves to learn about the new technology and ways to keep their students eager to explore the lay of the land.
"It's the ideal. It's true science," said Robert Duesing, an earth science teacher at Cleveland's Lincoln-West High School.
Duesing recently finished a four-day training course at the RG Drage Career Education Center in Massillon, which trains at least 60 teachers a year through the advocacy group OhioView.
The center trains twice as many teachers now as it did two years ago, said course coordinator Terri Benko, a senior research project manager at the University of Toledo.
Through the program, teachers are given hand-held global positioning devices and sent on a scavenger hunt to find items using longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates. They also learn about digital maps and online satellite mapping programs, as well as how to use the technologies to teach various courses.
Here's the goal
When they complete the seminar, teachers receive one hand-held global positioning device and an infrared thermometer for their schools. In exchange, their classes measure ground temperatures, often in school parking lots or nearby parks, and send results to NASA over the Internet. The goal is to help NASA improve the accuracy of satellite images and readings.
Mike Hickey, an earth science teacher from Cleveland's South High School, said students cheered when their data were sent to NASA, and one student donated batteries from his portable CD player to power the global positioning device.
"We're getting past the whole notion that geography is memorizing state capitals," said Joseph Kerski, a geographer with the U.S. Geological Survey. "Geography is about population growth and managing urban sprawl. It deals with every issue we're facing today."
OhioView started in 1996 and is the first state agency to promote the gathering of geographical data. A national version of the program, AmericaView, includes 25 state chapters.
Worldwide, The Globe Program, which was started by universities and federal agencies in 1994, has worked with schools to gather such data.
"We used to see in the 1990s individual teachers using GPS [global positioning system] units with their students," Kerski said. "Now you are seeing whole states and whole countries coming online."