This tutorial focuses on some of the tools you can access in ArcGIS Online that cover proximity and hot spot analysis. This resource is part of the Career Path Series - GIS for Crime Analysis Lesson.Find other resources at k12.esri.ca/resourcefinder.

This Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) project has developed, implemented, and evaluated a series of innovative Socio-Environmental Science Investigations (SESI) using a geospatial curriculum approach. It is targeted for economically disadvantaged 9th grade high school students in Allentown, PA, and involves hands-on geospatial technology to help develop STEM-related skills. SESI focuses on societal issues related to environmental science. These issues are multi-disciplinary, involve decision-making that is based on the analysis of merged scientific and sociological data, and have direct implications for the social agency and equity milieu faced by these and other school students. This project employed a design partnership between Lehigh University natural science, social science, and education professors, high school science and social studies teachers, and STEM professionals in the local community to develop geospatial investigations with Web-based Geographic Information Systems (GIS). These were designed to provide students with geospatial skills, career awareness, and motivation to pursue appropriate education pathways for STEM-related occupations, in addition to building a more geographically and scientifically literate citizenry. The learning activities provide opportunities for students to collaborate, seek evidence, problem-solve, master technology, develop geospatial thinking and reasoning skills, and practice communication skills that are essential for the STEM workplace and beyond. Despite the accelerating growth in geospatial industries and congruence across STEM, few school-based programs integrate geospatial technology within their curricula, and even fewer are designed to promote interest and aspiration in the STEM-related occupations that will maintain American prominence in science and technology. The SESI project is based on a transformative curriculum approach for geospatial learning using Web GIS to develop STEM-related skills and promote STEM-related career interest in students who are traditionally underrepresented in STEM-related fields. This project attends to a significant challenge in STEM education: the recognized deficiency in quality locally-based and relevant high school curriculum for under-represented students that focuses on local social issues related to the environment. Environmental issues have great societal relevance, and because many environmental problems have a disproportionate impact on underrepresented and disadvantaged groups, they provide a compelling subject of study for students from these groups in developing STEM-related skills. Once piloted in the relatively challenging environment of an urban school with many unengaged learners, the results will be readily transferable to any school district to enhance geospatial reasoning skills nationally.