Forever Maps
5 years ago the AP Human Geography teacher at my former high school announced that she would be moving to Rhode Island. She informed me that I would be taking over the course. I fell in love with the material and am constantly looking for ways to make geography more meaningful for students. Every year I feel I get a little better at getting young scholars to think about the five themes of geography: absolute and relative location, place, human/environmental interactions, regions, and movement. Last Friday I had an experience that will forever change to way I teach.
On the second day of the Contested Territory seminar Chris Bunin quickly and effectively taught us how to use ArcGIS software. Groups received an assignment that was due on the first Friday. Our instructions were to focus on one of the five themes of geography and create an ESRI story map based on the territory of SE Asia. Our group chose to focus on bombing in Southeast Asia during the Vietnamese/American War.
Working with my group on the assignment created an a-ha moment. Our topic was unexploded ordnance from the bombing of SE Asia. We all were thinking about human-environment interaction as we scoured the internet looking for data, articles, and images. We worked on how to use the software. We had brainstorming sessions to storyboard our presentation. This is exactly what I want my AP Human Geography and AP Capstone Research students to do.
The biggest a-ha moment came when the other groups presented. I looked at my fellow participants and saw the wonder as we viewed the aesthetically beautiful story maps. I kept thinking, “We collectively created these and they are awesome.” We were not only proud but also amazed at the power of the assignment. We learned from embedded videos, recorded first person accounts, biographies, and multiple maps where the information had probably never been conceptualized in that particular way.
My students will have a-ha moments when they learn how to GIS. It will take many hours for me to be able to do what Chris Bunin did for us. This is an investment of time that I am ready and willing to make.
Storymaps
Friday, July 29, 2018 group presentations of ESRI storymaps
Spencer Swindler, 44, social studies teacher Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
forever-maps
"The Town that Freedom Built": Preserving Zora Neale Hurston's Eatonville
This plaque, and several others, are sprinkled throughout Eatonville, Florida to guide a walking tour of America's first legally established self-governing all-African American municipality. Eatonville was established in 1887. The town gained popularity from its depiction in Zora Neale Hurston's novel, <em>Their Eyes Were Watching God</em> (1937), and her autobiography, <em>Dust Tracks on a Road</em> (1942). <br /><br />Sadly, 100 acres of Historic Eatonville has been lost due to expansion of the Greater Orlando area and Interstate 4. However, The Historic District of Eatonville was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 3, 1998. The Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community has been working to make Eatonville an internationally recognized tourism destination, to enhance the resources of the town, and to educate the public of its cultural significance and the community's heritage. <br /><br />I came to Eatonville because of my research and love for Zora Neale Hurston. Inspired by scholars such as Alice Walker, who worked to find and mark Hurston's final resting place, I too am aspired to keep Hurston's legacy from disappearing. The dilapidated plaques that are supposed to guide and educate the public about the importance of Eatonville are impossible to read. <br /><br />The sight of these plaques awakened a call-to-action inside of me. Since this moment, I have been working to digitally preserve Zora Neale Huston's Eatonville through geospatial technology and augmented and virtual reality technology. This technology has the capability to tell these stories in ways that are immersive and accessible. By digitally preserving these stories, future curious minds will be able to explore and share the experience.
Eatonville Walking Tour Plaques
February 2014
Valerie Rose Kelco, UNC-Greensboro, Literature
zora-neale-hurston-eatonville