Using GIS to Answer the 'Whys' of 'Where' in Social Studies

In the April 2000 issue of Social Education, Marsha Alibrandi and others introduced an oral history project that integrated geographic representations of African American history before and during the civil rights era. (1) That interdisciplinary, year-long project included interviews conducted by middle school students with a dozen alumni of the formerly segregated Ligon High School. The interviews shed light on segregation in schools, churches, movie theaters, swimming pools, and entire neighborhoods. In this article, we build upon the use of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) in U.S. history and in current demographic studies, using examples from co-author Herschel Sarnoff's classroom in the Watts section of Los Angeles. We discuss theoretical and conceptual approaches that support student learning with GIS and provide resources for teachers and students. Students and teachers in the Ligon History Project were using ArcView 3.3[R] GIS, a mapping tool new to classrooms. (2) The places the interviewees mentioned became references, or georeferences. Georeferences are the "pins" that attach certain memories, images, and events to a map. (3) By plotting the locations of certain experiences, students were able to map the separate geographies of African Americans and whites. In this way, GIS provides new representations of historical, socio-economic, and cultural information. While arguably GIS addresses issues within each of NCSS's 10 themes of social studies, the one we focus on is (VIII): SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY. In this article, we demonstrate how both using and critically assessing technology (particularly data) is central to students' use of GIS. As we learn about events, we create mental maps of locations, maps that become more detailed as we hear stories or visit (actually or virtually) the site of a particular event. (4) It is important to stress for students that events occur both in time and space. Certain sacred places in the Middle East, for example, claimed by adherents of the three major world religions, are the focus of past and present strife in that part of the world. The lessons and patterns of history, the causes and effects, the sequences of events, and the rise and fall of spheres of influence all have geographic bases. The question is, how do we make those spatial connections visible in socio-economic, cultural, historical, and political contexts? The How, Where, and Why of Integrating GIS As U.S. Geological Survey educator Joseph Kerski put it, "Geography is constituted of the 'whys' of 'where."' Therefore, spatial thinking demands that we ask ourselves (and that our students ask themselves), "Why did this event happen here and not elsewhere?" Simply adding this step into any social studies discussion or writing task extends students' thinking to imagine a landscape, and the various influences upon it, be they cultural, political, historic, environmental, or a combination of these. Herschel Sarnoff, of the Los Angeles Unified School District, taught history for 35 years in Watts, Los Angeles. Because of the school's unique demographic, historic poverty, and innercity status, Herschel was able to garner excellent technological resources for the school from technology benefits allotted to low-income communities. After attending a GIS workshop at Trade Tech Junior College taught by Michael Rendler, Herschel decided to try GIS in his U.S. history classes. He had students find historic data from the 1790 census, import the data into a database, and join the table from common fields in the database that were georeferences, such as towns or counties. With a common field in a database that "maps onto" a point, line, or area (i.e., town, street, or county), the data in the table could be displayed on the map. Because there were not yet 50 states in 1790, and because the data gathered at the time represented only white male landowners and their households (including slaves), the information isn't complete. …