Seminar: Why Teaching with GIS Matters

4pm – 5pm Wednesday 30 August

Building 80, Level 9, Room 12

Dr Joseph Kerski

As issues of climate change, economic globalisation, urban sprawl, biodiversity loss, sustainable agriculture, water quality and quantity, crime, energy, tourism, political instability, and natural hazards grow in importance on a global scale – but also increasingly affect our everyday lives – teaching with GIS is critical to empower students to grapple with, and solve these challenges.  This requires a populace that has a firm foundation in spatial thinking and can think critically by manipulating big-data.  Esri’s Dr. Joseph Kerski discusses the interdisciplinary benefits of teaching with GIS across universities in order to build a spatially literate population.

Dr. Kerski (Ph.D GISP) is a geographer who believes that spatial analysis through digital mapping can transform education and society through better decision-making using the geographic perspective.  He holds three degrees in Geography.  He has served as geographer and cartographer at NOAA, the US Census Bureau, and the US Geological Survey.  He teaches at primary and secondary schools, through MOOCs, and universities such as Sinte Gleska University and the University of Denver.  He serves as Education Manager for Esri, focused on curriculum development, research in the effectiveness of GIS in education, and professional development for educators. He has authored books such as Spatial Mathematics, Interpreting Our World—100 Discoveries that Revolutionized Geography, The Essentials of the Environment, Tribal GIS, and The GIS Guide to Public Domain Data.