Wielding GPS receivers and testing anemometers, Fredericksburg Academy sixth-graders got a firsthand look at a day in a geographer’s life during a recent field trip to the Department of Geography at the University of Mary Washington.
“I wanted my students to experience what ‘real’ geographers do,” said Fredericksburg Academy teacher Carey Pohanka, who also is a 1995 UMW alumna. “Many of my students in the past have said how much they enjoy studying geography, so I wanted to show them what they would do if they were to continue on with it.”
Under the direction of assistant professor of geography Jackie Gallagher, the 32 students experimented with anemometers, a tool that measures wind speed, and gripped thermometer guns to measure the temperature of a surface from a distance.
They held a light meter under fluorescent lamps and over tabletops to measure how much light was emitted from different sources, and they examined 3-D relief maps of the United States. Gallagher also demonstrated the usefulness of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in performing spatial analysis.
Outdoors, the students held computers equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers and loaded with imagery of Mary Washington’s Fredericksburg campus. The students viewed their exact location on the screen, moving as they followed paths. They were able to see different campus buildings and monuments on the image and in real life. Using latitude and longitude coordinates read from more basic GPS receivers, the students found hidden “geocaches”—containers usually holding logbooks—on campus by pinpointing cache locations with the GPS.
Using these tools enabled the students to get a sense of GPS accuracy and learn what types of information are available to aid data collection, said Gallagher.
“I wanted them to think positively about geography as a subject, and about UMW in general, so I wanted it to be fun,” she said.
And fun it was, judging from the student reactions.
“All 32 were mesmerized by the tools that Professor Gallagher showed them,” Pohanka said. “They asked lots of questions about the equipment, really looked at the relief maps, and were not afraid to be enthusiastic.”