End Notes to use GIS to solve real problems Steve Obenhaus, a math teacher at Olathe North High School in Olathe, Kansas, has proved that you do not need extensive GIS training to effectively and meaningfully integrate geospatial technologies into a high school curriculum. Integrating GIS in secondary curricula is a relatively new concept. Finding an approach that will hold students' short- and long-term interest can be difficult. Obenhaus has succeeded in incorporating GIS in his math courses and has helped his students produce high-quality GIS projects. Students in the school's Distinguished Scholars program spend one hour per day during their senior year completing a senior project. This program offers students individualized lesson plans in a specific discipline. Since Obenhaus and another teacher introduced GIS to the school, student scholars in geoscience, biotechnology, and math have used GIS in their projects. Obenhaus has a simple approach: ask a question about something that is bothering you and use GIS combined with math to answer the question. "I teach math, which is more of a tool than a subject," explained Obenhaus. "By combining GIS and math, students use both tools to answer spatial questions about the world. Only with GIS can they quickly perform multiple analytic functions and see spatial patterns that are not apparent with a graph or table." Continued on page 68 Teacher inspires students With help from a Kansas GIS professional, Vidaurre used ArcView to identify the highest clusters of children without access to clean water. With this information, she located six new wells where they would benefit the greatest number of children. www.esri.com ArcUser Spring 2009 67