From Conception to Compliance, an Interdisciplinary Approach to Spatial Thinking and GIS Education in North Carolina

The needs of a global citizen may be determined best by educational leadership and policy stakeholders geared towards interdisciplinary Earth Science. Openmindedness, a means to reach collective agreement, may support spatial thinking or GIS education in North Carolina towards a formal K-12 course of study implementation. In particular, A Five-step Plan and Methodology to Introduce GIS to Educators State-wide in North Carolina conceptualized the notion of expanding spatial thinking in education. Such could anchor and lead towards a greater interdisciplinary exchange of research collaboration between secondary and K-16 stakeholders. Even the National Academy of Sciences (2006) noted the following: Spatial thinking is not an add-on to an already crowded school curriculum, but rather a missing link across that curriculum. Integration and infusion of spatial thinking can help to achieve existing curricular objectives. Spatial thinking is another lever to enable students to achieve a deeper and more insightful understanding of subjects across the curriculum (National Academy of Sciences, 2006, p. 26). Branch (2009) stated the following as, As such, this work proposed that before spatial thinking and geographical information systems (GIS)/global positioning satellites (GPS) could be conveyed and implemented properly in the K-12 experience, the educational practices must be in place to address such implications and potential. In addition, as local and state governments further prepare, manage, and embrace GIS in their data operations Onsrud, Johnson, and Winnecki (1996) and; General Assembly of North Carolina (2003), public education may have to do likewise. The need for geospatial skills was defined as a legitimate workforce concern by the Bush (2005) Presidential Initiatives warranting next generation considerations of K-12 learning. As the coordination of spatial data has been progressing since 2002, in North Carolina, an interdisciplinary approach may be the perfect catalyst to consider GIS methodology as a vital medium to support the United States Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines and international Group Earth Observation objectives and communities that interact with the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).