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Across Texas, Washington, and Pennsylvania, three university teams worked with teachers at three high schools to integrate geographic information systems (GIS) and other geospatial tools into chemistry lessons as part of a larger, multi-disciplinary teacher professional development initiative. Each university followed a specific design model of socio-environmental science investigations (SESI) in their professional development and curriculum development processes. Each teacher’s work is presented as a case with distinct school contexts, professional development experiences, classroom implementation outcomes, and reflections after implementation. Cross-case findings include variability in teachers’ adoption processes, the importance of cross-site collaboration, and the ability of geospatial tools to bring chemistry topics “off the bench” and into students’ thinking about their world. These cases present an advance in the curricular reach of GIS, which to date has not been broadly used in high school chemistry instruction. Further, the cases illustrate examples of the teachers’ geospatial science pedagogical content knowledge. 

The project described in this article focused on the school’s environment and students’ connections with the school. The project took place in a large, comprehensive high school with eight 12th grade students, one with intellectual disabilities, three with learning disabilities, two with autism spectrum disorders, and two with health impairments. Students learned to collect data, use an ArcGIS map for analysis, brainstormed and carried out methods to bring awareness about garbage on school grounds to the school community (using posters, announcements, and incentive points), and compared garbage quantity after a week of awareness. Students gained insight into how technology can be used to define a problem, strategies to communicate important issues, and the value of collecting and using data for decision-making. The strengths of this project were engaging students in an authentic school-based investigation while being introduced to new technology tools, learning about the impact they can have on their school, and increasing their connections to the schoolwide community.