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In the Curriculum Guidelines of 12- Year Basic Education, the topic of Geographic Information System (GIS) is included in the first academic year of senior high school. Typically, it is taught with textbooks and supplemented with multimedia such as videos. However, this method is unable to thoroughly present the main content of Geographic Information System which includes important concepts like spatial data, attribute data, vector data, raster data analysis, buffer analysis, terrain analysis, and map overlay analysis. The complexity of these concepts cannot be well explained or understood by only using brief descriptions and charts from textbooks. Compared with lectures, it is more efficient to understand GIS by having the students directly hand on using the software.

This research used Quantum GIS as the main software and incorporated the content of the 108 syllabuses to design four teaching materials that each last for one hour. The four topics includes area map, contour topographic map, contour map and buffer analysis. In the process of guiding students to use the software e, researcher observed and recorded the problems generated by students' operation and developed corresponding solutions. After the implementation, a questionnaire survey is collected to analyze students’ understanding of the basic concepts of GIS, the difficulty of each operation procedure, and evaluate the practicality of using QGIS to design auxiliary teaching materials based on the feedback of the students.

Through repeated analysis of the above-mentioned action research method, this study found that although the GIS operation with high complexity is not easy for students to master, the concept of GIS and the knowledge of spatial analysis can be better understood. In the qualitative feedback of students, it also reflects a high degree of satisfaction with the course, and shows students are looking forward to more advanced study. It shows this design of teaching materials is practical and valuable for improving students' enthusiasm for learning and teacher’s effectiveness.