Why of the Where: History and Local Culture - CANCELLED

Introduction:  The new Why of Where series moves beyond “technology training” to projecttraining usingadvanced 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 studentswho 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:  Interested in creating your own online historical atlas designed specifically for your community? In this course, students will investigate various aspects of their local history through advanced spatial analysis. This training will move students from performing simple point and click operations to creating a Historical Atlas of their local communities using ArcGIS, which will then be published online and will be seen as part of the overall EAST Historical Atlas on the EAST website. After completing this training, students will understand how to gather, manipulate, and analyze historical data as well as understand the steps involved in project development using ArcGIS. This will in turn provide the students with a valid framework to develop future projects. 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.