![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/instruction.austincc.edu\/tledupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2022\/06\/GlobalizingEducationFLC.png?resize=300%2C300&ssl=1\")
by Stephanie Long, M.Sc., Geographic Information Systems Professional, Professor and Department Chair, Geographic Information Systems<\/b><\/p>\nby Stephanie Long, M.Sc., Geographic Information Systems Professional, Professor and Department Chair, Geographic Information Systems<\/b><\/p>\n
As a professor of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), it is common for students and I to discuss global topics.\u00a0 However, my experience with the Global Education Faculty Learning Community (FLC) will allow me to confidently dive deeper into these topics with students and add even more global topics across the curriculum.<\/p>\n
The faculty of the Global Education FLC met regularly, covering topics such as women rappers, food and housing insecurities, and the crisis in Ukraine.\u00a0 The variety of topics and the dynamic guest speakers led to great discussions among faculty members from Austin Community College (ACC), the University of Texas at Austin, the City University of New York, and more.\u00a0 This was a valuable, collaborative learning experience that will continue to benefit me – and in turn the students – for years to come.<\/p>\n
In order to automate tedious tasks, GIS professionals utilize the Python programming language to automate workflows in the GIS map-making software.\u00a0 In the Programming for GIS class taught at ACC, students are presented with a project assessment wherein they create a 3D scene of Ocean Health Index (OHI) goals and develop a map book for Earth\u2019s 7 continents.\u00a0 The Ocean Health Index (‘OHI’) is used to measure how healthy the oceans of our world are by evaluating current conditions such as social, economic, and environmental states. Understanding the state of our oceans is an important step to continue providing humans benefits now and in the future.\u00a0 There are 220 coastal nations and territories that have been assessed since 2012 and a current index of assessments can be seen on the global map here<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Earth\u2019s oceans provide over 500 million jobs, a primary source of protein for over 1 billion people, and coastal habitats save billions of dollars each year from protection against storms.\u201d (Source<\/a>).\u00a0 The index created consists of ten diverse goals: food provision, artisanal fishing opportunities, natural products, carbon storage, coastal protection, sense of place, livelihoods and economies, tourism and recreation, clean waters, and biodiversity.\u00a0 These goals assess coasts for their current state, for example, the amount of seafood sustainably harvested or the ability of coastal habitats to remove carbon.<\/p>\n The project instructions are delivered to students in the form of a Statement of Work (SOW) document that has detailed instructions to guide the students in exploring the terminology of OHI and becoming familiar with the goals and subgoals.\u00a0 Students also read the story map \u201cHealing our Oceans with Data<\/span><\/a>\u201d to learn more about the data they are going to use in this project.\u00a0 Instructions for summary tasks are provided for each topic of the course, progressing with the course lectures and exercises.\u00a0 Those instructions also include screenshots of how to complete the work in the software and provide students with sample Python scripts to kick things off.\u00a0 The result is a series of maps where students describe OHI to their audience in their own words and present the results of their analyses on a 3D global map (Figure 1).<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/instruction.austincc.edu\/tledupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/05\/Stephanie-Long-Blog-Image.png?resize=1110%2C854&ssl=1\")
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