New Downloadable Resources Supplement ESRI Press Book Thinking Spatially Using GIS

Redlands, California—May 4, 2009—Teachers with access to ArcGIS Desktop software (ArcInfo, ArcEditor, or ArcView) will be able to use Thinking Spatially Using GIS and newly created educational materials to integrate geospatial technology into primary-level classrooms. The new materials are available for download from the Web at no cost and complement the lessons that are currently available in the Thinking Spatially Using GIS book.

"The materials include ArcGIS software-based student workbook pages, teacher notes, map documents, and a few revised data layers," says Laura Bowden, ESRI K–16 program coordinator.

Thinking Spatially Using GIS is level 1 in the award-winning Our World GIS Education book series, which was created to enhance geospatial learning for students of all levels—grade school through college—and provide teachers with comprehensive and easy-to-use resources for the classroom. Lessons in Thinking Spatially Using GIS align with National Geography Standards and introduce students to basic concepts in spatial inquiry through conventional third-through-sixth-grade topics. Students practice map reading and pattern recognition skills by exploring, for example, Ferdinand Magellan's trip around the world, where tornados occur in the United States and why, and early settlement patterns in the United States. Within the new ArcGIS Desktop teaching materials, there is an activity that has been added for lesson 2, "Touring the Zoo," that gives students the opportunity to use ArcGIS to draw their zoo tour route.

To use the additional resources that are available online, educators will need access to ArcGIS Desktop 9.2 or 9.3 software, such as through an ESRI site license, as well as a copy of Thinking Spatially Using GIS and the accompanying data CD.

To download the new no-cost materials for Thinking Spatially Using GIS, visit www.esri.com/ArcGISforLevel1. Thinking Spatially Using GIS (ISBN: 9781589481800, 292 pages, $49.95) is available at online retailers worldwide, at www.esri.com/esripress, or by calling 1-800-447-9778. Outside the United States, visit www.esri.com/esripressorders for complete ordering options or contact your local ESRI distributor. For a current distributor list, visit www.esri.com/distributors. Interested retailers can contact ESRI Press book distributor Ingram Publisher Services.

About ESRI Press

ESRI Press publishes books on geographic information systems (GIS), cartography, and the application of spatial analysis to many areas of public and private endeavor including land-use planning, health care, education, business, government, and science. The complete selection of GIS titles from ESRI Press can be found on the Web at www.esri.com/esripress.

About ESRI

Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at www.esri.com.



Contact:

Jim Baumann
ESRI
Tel.: 909-793-2853, extension 1-1807
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