Towson University’s Outreach Blog

Jeremy

Last Thursday, the first hour of WYPR’s Midday with Dan Rodricks program explored the question–How Do Innovations in Technology Affect Education?.  If you listened to the program, you heard Dr. Todd Kenreich, Associate Professor and Graduate Director in the Department of Secondary Education at Towson University, speak about the use of technology in Maryland classrooms.  Dr. Kenreich stressed the importance of geographic education in developing students that have a grasp on contemporary issues facing our increasingly interconnected world.  During the interview, Dr. Kenreich argued that GIS can be an effective educational tool that can be used to develop a deeper understanding in geography.

Towson University’s CGIS is working with Dr. Kenreich to incorporate GIS into a seventh grade class exercise at The Crossroads School, a public charter school in Baltimore City, for GIS Day in November.  Kierran Sutherland, a GIS Specialist at CGIS, has been responsible for coordinating CGIS’ involvement in this exercise.  I sat down with Kierran to ask him a few questions regarding GIS Day and CGIS’ involvement with the Crossroads school.

CGIS’ involvement with The Crossroads School stems from CGIS’ interest in doing something for GIS Day this year.  What is GIS Day?

GIS Day is a worldwide day of education about GIS.  Thousands of people and organizations around the world participate in a variety of ways such as: open houses, workshops and school projects.  GIS Day occurs this year on Wednesday, November 18th during National Geography Awareness week.

How did CGIS get involved with The Crossroads School for GIS Day?

Dr. Kenreich has worked with us during past CGIS GIS Day outreach efforts, including GIS Day events at Ellicott Mills Middle School in 2007 and Dulaney Valley High School in 2008.  So when we were looking for GIS Day event ideas this year, we approached him for input.  Dr. Kenreich suggested The Crossroads School in Baltimore City, and since one of his former students now teaches at the school it was an easy partnership for us to form.  Everyone involved is excited about partnering with The Crossroads School.

What does CGIS plan to do for GIS Day at The Crossroads School?

One of the great things about working with The Crossroads School is that the teacher we are working with, Jake Fishbein, already had an idea of how to incorporate GIS into what the students are learning.  The students we will be working with are working on an interdisciplinary project that focuses on what they see as important about Baltimore.  They are putting together a tourist guide which will include locations around Baltimore that are important to Baltimore residents, rather than just places that are set up as tourist destinations.  Our part of the project will be working with the students to collect data about a number of monuments around Baltimore, and then creating a map using Google Earth which the students will then be able to add to in the future.

Is CGIS planning any other activities for GIS Day this year?

Along with our project with The Crossroads School, CGIS is also running an information session to reach out to Towson University faculty and staff so they can learn what GIS is and how it can be applied to their own work or research.  This will give them a chance to learn a little bit about what CGIS does and also learn how GIS can be used as a tool to answer various questions.  This event is being held here at CGIS on Thursday November 19^th.

Check out Towson University’s Outreach blog in a few weeks to read Sharyn Kuczka’s blog recounting CGIS’ GIS Day events.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 1:57 pm and is filed under Education, Events, Mapping, Students, TU Faculty & Staff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.