Teachers in school this summer

Teachers from five states took advantage of their summer vacations to spend Wednesday morning down by the Carson River.

However, they were not there for fun. The teachers are spending this week learning geographic information systems at the Jim Reynolds Technology Center on the high school campus.

"They're doing some incredible things," said Joseph Kerski, a U.S. Geological Service representative from Denver who helped plan the workshop. "They're using real-world data that they collected this morning and now they're putting it in the computer."

Anita Brooks, a GIS teacher at Carson High School, talked with Kerski and chemistry teacher Roger Palmer from Grand Forks, N.D., last year about the need for teachers to incorporate technology in the classroom.

"This is an area rich in possibilities," she said. "We started cooking this up back in September."

The three announced the workshop over the Internet and contacted teachers through word-of-mouth. This week the workshop was filled to capacity with teachers from fifth to 12th grade.

"It's very exciting to see seven months' worth of work come together," Brooks said.

GIS is the process of collecting data from various sources and putting it together to recognize patterns.

For example, the teachers spent the morning collecting data from the river including pH and temperature. They also determined their location by using a global positioning receiver.

Later, they combined the data on a map to determine what conditions are present at which part of the river.

For Scott Allen, a teacher from Boulder, Colo., the field trip was the highlight of the workshop.

"That's the part that brings it to life for me," he said. "The computer is just the tool for the information that we collected."

Two Eagle Valley Middle School seventh-grade teachers attended together in hopes of finding a way to integrate their classrooms.

Chris Whitcome, who teaches science, wants to combine information with Cathy Harrison's geography class. Although Whitcome said she still has to learn more, she said the class is helping.

"We're well on the way," she said.

Brooks said the workshop is just the beginning and more training sessions will be held to help teachers learn the system.