{"id":380221,"date":"2020-11-03T19:59:58","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T03:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcnews&#038;p=380221"},"modified":"2020-11-03T16:44:34","modified_gmt":"2020-11-04T00:44:34","slug":"in-unique-circumstances-educator-teaches-gis-in-class-and-on-tv","status":"publish","type":"arcnews","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/in-unique-circumstances-educator-teaches-gis-in-class-and-on-tv","title":{"rendered":"In Unique Circumstances, Educator Teaches GIS in Class and on TV"},"author":5752,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10392,171,10372],"tags":[427051,430851,241,238461,138062],"arcnews_issues":[472031],"class_list":["post-380221","arcnews","type-arcnews","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arcgis-online","category-education","category-gis-hero","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-gis","tag-learn-gis","tag-science","arcnews_issues-fall-2020","arcnews_sections-gis-people"],"acf":{"short_description":"During the COVID-19 pandemic, a high school science teacher has leveraged his second job as the local meteorologist to teach kids GIS.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"When the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused science teacher Ryan Miller and all his students at Washington-Liberty High School in Arlington, Virginia, to start at-home schooling in mid-March, the enterprising educator had an idea.\r\n\r\n\u201cI\u2019m the fill-in meteorologist at [ABC7 affiliate] WJLA-TV, so when that weekend hit, I emailed my boss at the TV station and said, \u2018Hey, do you want me to do a few lessons on things students can do at home to keep learning while they\u2019re away from school?\u2019\u201d Miller recalled. \u201cShe said, \u2018Yes, go ahead!\u2019\u201d\r\n\r\nMiller\u2019s first few segments were 2 minutes long and covered the theme of change, since so many variables were up in the air at the time. Within days, he was doing 30-minute segments, which got such great reviews that the station asked him the very next week if he wanted his own show."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":380231,"image_position":"right","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"\u201cI said, \u2018Sure!\u2019 So we created <em>Outside the Classroom<\/em>,\u201d he said. It\u2019s an hour-long show that covers science and often incorporates GIS into lessons. While it\u2019s geared somewhat toward teenagers, the station\u2019s ratings data shows that kids in all age groups tune in.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe\u2019ll do some GIS on the show where we talk about, If it rains an inch over an acre of land, how much rain is that in gallons? or What\u2019s the volume of water that fell? and we can map that out,\u201d Miller said. \u201cI set up an interactive map through ArcGIS Online that I use on the show, and I\u2019ll say, \u2018Hey, if you want, go to this website and search for this map and use your device with a very simple app I built to upload the weather conditions where you are. We can map it out and talk about that.\u2019\u201d\r\n\r\nDuring the spring, the show aired five days a week in the mornings, but it moved to three days a week over the summer\u2014a schedule that Miller kept until the show moved to afternoons when the school year picked back up in September. He said the show doesn\u2019t require a lot of extra work on his part because he really sees it as an extension of his teaching.\r\n\r\n\u201cI teach environmental science and a GIS mapping class, so the show is just like having another class,\u201d he said, pointing out that this is his 19th year teaching and his 13th or 14th year of covering these two subjects. \u201cAlso, it\u2019s done from home, so it\u2019s not like I have to, you know, go anywhere.\u201d\r\n\r\nMiller was always interested in geography as a kid, thanks to the <em>World Book Encyclopedia<\/em> set his parents had.\r\n\r\n\u201cI just remember being fascinated by the maps that accompanied the entries on every US state,\u201d he said. \u201cI would go through those maps all the time.\u201d\r\n\r\nFor college, he went to Penn State University, where he studied agronomy with a specialty in turfgrass science. While there, he took some weather classes but not enough to major or minor in it.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhen I graduated from Penn State, I was trying to work on golf courses and athletic fields, but for some reason, I lost my interest in it,\u201d he said. \u201cI met somebody who was in a program at Virginia Tech doing a math- and science-focused teaching degree, so I did that program.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe fell in love with teaching and, 18 months later, was placed in a school system to begin his career as an educator.\r\n\r\n\u201cI\u2019ve been at the same school ever since, and I haven\u2019t looked back,\u201d he said.\r\n\r\nBut Miller has certainly pursued other interests on the side.\r\n\r\n\u201cBy dumb, random luck, I started working at a TV station, helping out with the weather,\u201d he recalled. \u201cSo I went back and did the graduate program in broadcast meteorology at the US Department of Agriculture\u2019s Graduate School.\u201d\r\n\r\nAnd when he was earning his education specialist degree at George Washington University, he was able to use credits from his broadcast meteorology degree to fulfill some requirements.\r\n\r\n\u201cSo it all kind of blended well together,\u201d Miller said.\r\n\r\nThat synchronicity persisted. Shortly after starting his teaching career, one of Miller\u2019s earth science students asked him a question about the weather, but Miller didn\u2019t know the answer.\r\n\r\n\u201cI emailed, on a whim, the chief meteorologist of the ABC station in Washington, DC, and asked him the student\u2019s question,\u201d he recalled. \u201cLo and behold, he said, \u2018Hey, you know, I have such an affinity for teachers. Do you want to come in and we can talk about it?\u2019 And I was like, \u2018Sure.\u2019 So I went in and hit it off with the gentleman\u2026and I just started spending time volunteering and helping them out in the weather center every once in a while, if there were storms. I had enough of a background in it to be helpful.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":380241,"image_position":"left","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Soon, Miller started producing weather segments, which entailed making the forecast and putting together the graphics. Eventually, when an on-air personality left the station, Miller was asked if he\u2019d like to do the weather on television.\r\n\r\n\u201cI said, \u2018Well, I\u2019ve never done it, but yes,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI would go down to the station between the 6:00 p.m. news and the 11:00 p.m. news and just practice in front of the green screen, doing the weather for hours. Finally, I felt comfortable, and they were like, \u2018You\u2019re on.\u2019\u201d\r\n\r\nIn many ways, Miller thinks of doing the weather and being a teacher as one and the same.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhen you\u2019re doing the weather, your job is to communicate science and data and turn it into useful information for your audience,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s no difference between that, in my mind, and teaching.\u201d\r\n\r\nA number of his students have certainly found his classes to be very useful, especially those who, after taking his GIS class, have gone on to become GIS professionals.\r\n\r\n\u201cI have quite a few of those, actually,\u201d he said.\r\n\r\nJames Fendley, who took Miller\u2019s GIS class during his senior year at Washington-Liberty High School, is one such student. He majored in geography at the University of Mary Washington and, after graduating this spring, landed a job as a business intelligence developer at JSTech Consulting. He\u2019s also pursuing his master\u2019s degree in geospatial analysis.\r\n\r\n\u201cIn high school, I wasn\u2019t the best student, but Mr. Miller made his GIS class fun and productive,\u201d said Fendley. \u201cI learned so much about GIS that when I went to college, it was the only subject I felt comfortable doing and learning. He gave me confidence and made me feel like I was good at GIS.\u201d\r\n\r\nPart of what makes Miller\u2019s GIS class unique is that students get to do real projects for real businesses.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere are so many GIS professionals in the Washington, DC, area, and I knew that a lot of them had one or two projects on the back burner that they just didn\u2019t have time to do,\u201d said Miller. \u201cSo I started going around to a lot of them and saying, \u2018Hey, I\u2019ve got 20, 18-year-olds with a fair amount of GIS knowledge. Do you want them to try and take on some of this work?\u2019 A lot of folks in the area, luckily, were able to give us meaningful projects.\u201d\r\n\r\nWhat\u2019s more, seniors like Fendley who take Miller\u2019s GIS class get to participate in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/breaking-down-the-barriers-to-geospatial-education\/\">Geospatial Semester<\/a>, a joint program with James Madison University that allows them to earn college credit for it.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe program keeps kids invested in the process of learning during their senior year,\u201d said Miller. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool teaching a college class at the high school level, giving the kids that take it an opportunity to learn skills and tools that a lot of their peers don\u2019t know.\u201d\r\n\r\nHelping students build this kind of knowledge, which they can then use to help others, is what most inspires and motivates Miller. And now that GIS, as he sees it, is synonymous with tackling climate change, the spread of disease, misinformation, and more, he thinks it\u2019s an essential technology for people to know.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s very necessary and useful in so many ways,\u201d he said."},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Center","content":"Read other articles in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/news-publications\/newsroom\/publications\/gis-heroes\">GIS Heroes<\/a> series.","snippet":""}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>In Unique Circumstances, Educator Teaches GIS in Class and on TV | ArcNews | Fall 2020<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"During the COVID-19 pandemic, a high school science 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