Outreach
Dr. Manson and fellow researchers in the HEGIS lab collaborate with EcoEducation, an environmental education organization that serves the Twin Cities’ diverse K-12 students, to integrate geospatial technology and spatial thinking into its Model Schools in Urban Environmental Education program.
Eco Education has served over 145,000 students since 1991. Eco Education is "committed to making environmental education relevant to urban learners and to helping them address their unique environmental concerns."
Activities include:
- Hosting Professional Development Institutes for Twin Cities teachers in collaboration with EcoEducation. The institutes focus on the Minnesota Interactive Mapping Project, an internet mapping application that supports courses across the K-12 curriculum, in urban environmental coursework. One teacher noted that this was the 'best field trip in his eighteen years as an educator."
- Hosting student workshops for Twin Cities students on spatial topics in collaboration with EcoEducation and other partners at the University of Minnesota including Kristi Jensen in the Map Library, Anise McDowell, CLA's K-12 Education Coordinator, and the staff and faculty who created the Geowall. These visits have a great impact; in the words one student, "The field trip to the U of M was the funnest. I will always remember all the neat things I learned and experienced."
- Students from the Interdistrict Downtown School gathered information about food choices available in the area surrounding their downtown Minneapolis school. They went to the farmers market and talked to restaurant owners and venders to learn if food was local or organic and if therewere fresh fruits and vegetable available. Then, they created a map in MIIM showing "green" restaurants, coffee shops, stores, and farmers markets. Students presented their mapped data and discussed the importance of buying local and organic produce and eating fresh fruits and vegetable. They also explained how they used MIIM to map the neighborhood.
In addition to the positive feedback from educators and students, this work has been written about in several venues, including being highlighted in the New Media Consortium's The Horizon Report, which identifies model applications of technology in education and research.
See the main Minnesota Interactive Internet Mapping (MIIM) page for more information.
