The Why of Where: Your Community

Introduction:  The new Why of Whereseries 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:  So you've mapped the fire hydrants...now what? Working with local governments and/or Chambers of Commerce is a great way to help your community in a meaningful way, but what else can you do? Tons! Cities and counties take care of a lot of the infrastructure that we take for granted, from water distribution and road maintenance, to maintaining property records and assessing taxes. Chambers of Commerce work to attract industry and build tourism for local economic development. During this training, students will learn how to gather, evaluate, and analyze data commonly used by local governments and Chambers, with special focus on strategic planning for how this data will be shared and maintained over the long-term so that it continues to be of benefit.

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.