The Why of Where: Disasters and Emergency Management

Introduction:  The new Why of Where series moves beyond “technology training” to project training using advanced tools. Moving beyond simple point and click operations, this series is designed to assist students through the “process of analysis” to improve their skills in project development using ArcGIS. Each school will send a team of 3 or 4 students who plan to start a project in one of four themes: history, disasters, health, or water (choose the appropriate workshop). Teams from each school will begin each course with a guided, pre-packaged project and will personalize this project to fit their local needs. These projects will then be published online as Story Maps to support their local communities and to share with other students throughout EAST. Students attending these workshops are expected to continue, customize, and grow their project upon return to their school. CAST staff will provide regular post-workshop support and follow-up with students to assist, review, and encourage them in their projects. Online maps from the students’ projects will be featured on the EAST website.

Description:  Is your local community prepared for a natural disaster - like tornadoes, floods, or even fire hazards? Would you like to learn how to assess this in your city or county? This training teaches students how to understand, assess, and implement potential disaster preparedness through project based learning. Students will analyze various data types and data sources to develop sound and effective solutions to assist in their community before and/or after an event, and the results will be published online. This course will provide students with a framework to develop future projects using GIS and is a great fit for this year’s National Service Project.

ITEMS TO BRING:  N/A

PRE-REQUISITES:  Since students will be working together in teams from each school, at least one student from each team will need to be experienced with basic ArcGIS skills, and will need to teach their teammate(s) the basics of ArcGIS (how to add data, how to navigate, etc.) prior to the workshop. The Why of Where workshop series are intermediate- to advanced-level training.

 Note: trainers will be unable to cover beginning-level skills in the workshop.

Possible paths for learning introductory ArcGIS skills:

• Attending an earlier Community Mapping workshop (last year).
• Completion of Community Mapping Online or the GPS with GIS Online courses at EAST Geospatial Online
• Completion of an introductory ArcGIS course on the ESRI Virtual Campus (Learning ArcGIS Desktop; Getting to Know ArcGIS….)
• Working through an introductory book, such as The GIS 20 Essential Skills (ESRI Press).

CAST staff are also identifying other introductory resources, particularly for younger students. Please keep an eye on the Facilitator Discussion portion of the Forums for updates.

 Feel free to contact CAST staff with questions regarding meeting prerequisites.