Aside from the obvious benefit of training students to be familiar with using GIS applications when they enter the work force, students and teachers can enjoy immense rewards by using GIS in the classroom.
Students despise sitting and reading out of textbooks or completing worksheets day after day.
Students subjected to such outdated teaching methods often create tremendous disturbances due to boredom. Today's students enjoy learning in an environment where the work they are completing is authentic and meaningful to real life. Students exposed to this style of learning experience stay interested longer, retain more of the lessons they are investigating, and earn better grades. My experience has been that not only do the students become totally engrossed in the lessons, classroom behavior improves dramatically. Lessons involving GIS can easily be integrated with mathematics, geography, reading, English, as well as any of the science disciplines.