Goals and Outcomes

GOALS AND OUTCOMES

Project Timetable

Semester	Development Activity	Evaluation Activity
Summer 2004	Advisory Board initial planning meeting Organize initial county boundary shape files from NHGIS Organize initial data sets from ICPSR Purchase and initialize server PC Test and select map server software solution (ie., MyWorld, IDL, or Internet MapServer) Generate sample data maps for Fall testing (using MapInfo)	Hire GA, develop instruments, plan data organization and collectoin procedures
Fall 2004	GIS server engine development (Inquirium) Interface design (Inquirium) First 2 curriculum examples with map images & documents	Formative classroom and lab pilot testing using map image files on web pages (not interactive data)
Spring 2005	Continue development of server engine and interface Beta version -- data maps, document linking, layers Classroom enactments of initial projects using beta version (1 UIC and 1 high school classroom)	Development, pilot testing and refinement of evaluatoin instruments and data collection Gather data in classroom enactments for formative evaluation Feedback from pilot studies to design process
Summer 2005	Second release -- project design toos, instructor supports, student artifact collection & organization tools 3 more curriculum modules	Continue formative studies in informal settings -- UIC workshops, summer sessions
Fall 2005	Finalize curriculum modules Enactments in K12 and UIC classrooms Revise interface, functionality based on pilot studies Begin dissemination activities	Formal field testing studies -- 2 high school classrooms and 2 UIC courses
Spring 2006	Finalize support documents Dissemination activities	Complete field testing studies

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Design of the Website

The proposed learning environment will enable studetns to alternate easily between examining data maps and documents, saving copies (or links) of data that are relevant, and making notes of questions and observations that are pertinent to the current documents. Interactivity of the student and teacher interfaces are illustrated below.

Student Inquiry Environment Interface

Following logging on, students will use tools like these to conduct their investigations:

Document menu -- a list of primary source archives chosen by the teacher with turn-down menus for students to browse the selected documents for the project in the adjacent window. An instructor may also choose to link students to a search tool to find relevant documents on their own as well.
Timeline -- a slider enables students to select the decade fro their data, out of those chosen by the instructor to incluce in the project.
Data Layers -- categories of census data selected by the instructor for this project, with the variable listed under the turn-down menu. When students select a variable it displays on the map. The "About This Layer" button enables students to customize the GIS representation (e.g. dot density vs. colored polygons fo each county, color scheme, etc) to fine-tune and communicate their observations.
"Save Map button enables students to keep artifacts from their inquiry as evidence for claims. "Add a Note" button enables students to annotate a map with a label (e.g. city name) or and observation (e.g. "3big concentrations in the North"). "Compare Layers" button enables students to display two maps side-by-side for chronological or thematic comparisons.
Standard GIS toolbar enables zooming, panning, information tool to click a point and see underlying data, and question-mark tool to find information about the data variables.

Teacher Customization Interface

Teachers will use an interface like this one to set up an inquiry environment for a specific project:

Add Documents menu -- instructors select archives ("Add New Archive") and/or specific documents to include as links in the Documents menu for the project, pointing students to relevant sources. Documents can be assigned to specific decades so that tehy only display when that decade is selected, or can be displayed throughout the project.
Choose Census Years -- instructors choose decades to display for the project (between 1790 and 2000), which determine the data variables available from those years' censuses.
Choose Data Layers -- from each selected decade's census variable categories the instructor chooses variables that will be valuable for students to investigate the project's core historical themes.
Map Theme buttons -- for each data variable the instructor can keep the default GIS display theme, or can customize it (i.e. select color scheme, dot density vs. colored polygons, select icons and size scale, etc).
Project settings are saved for a project and can be stored and re-used. When students log on for that project the documents, decades, data variables and display settings will be invoked.

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Curriculum Units

This grant will oversee the collaboration of university history instructors, educational software designers, and in-service high school teachers in the development of an on-line historical inquiry environment, including tools for teachers to custom-design projects on a range of historical topics for their students. Five curriculum modules on key topics in American history will be built into the website, modeling the use of the environment. The value of the learning environment for teaching and learning history will be evaluated by pilot testing these curriculum units in Chicago public high school classrooms as well as university Teaching of History courses.

Currently, these curriculum units are still in development. You can see their progress by clicking on the links below.

1790: The 1st Census

The Black Hills

The Great Migration

U.S. Immigration

Urban Deindustrialization

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County Data and Shape Files

The NHGIS project is in the process of creating GIS shape files for accurate historical boundaries of every US county in every census year since 1790. As these files become available, NHGIS will be collaborating with us to make them available in our software and curriculum.