Grassroots Mapping youth curriculum
This page was imported from the old Grassroots Mapping Wiki, and dates from 2009-10
Several groups (need to list them here) are working on grassroots mapping-related curricula in various sites. This is a page to help share work, combine efforts, and hopefully create a generalized curricula which can be adopted for use in new projects.
Current Curricular Development Projects
- GrassrootsMappingLima implemented a curriculum based on this document: GrassrootsMappingLimaCurriculum
- NuVoWorkshop - a late April 2010 2-week intensive mapping workshop with high school students from around Boston
- Mikel Maron at MapKibera.org is also organizing curricular efforts.
- The DepartmentOfPlay at MIT's Center for Future Civic Media (Jeff/grassrootsmapping.org is a member) is developing a mapping curriculum as part of its summer 2010 Urban Learning Labs. More soon.
If you are working on a curriculum please feel free to add yourself to this list.
Materials
To hold a workshop/class on balloon mapping, be sure to look over the BalloonMaterialsList for prices and links to online sources.
Outline
Typically we try to situate the mapping exercises and tool-building in a specific geographic situation; participants may be interested in mapping their own community and/or supporting a community in need -- even a distant community.
A short workshop can be a few hours long, involving building a basic SodaBottleRig or Picavet suspension and attaching to a balloon to do a short BalloonAerialPhotography flight.
A more in-depth workshop can consist of several days or up to two weeks, and can include the following activities, based on participant age and area of interest:
- Discussion of existing maps of target community
- Hand drawing maps
- Exploring the neighborhood, interviewing neighbors
- Flying kites, observing weather patterns for possible balloon flights
- Building a SodaBottleRig or a BalloonAerialPhotography (Picavet) rig
- Hold a design competition for a camera capsule: strength, low weight, low cost, ease of assembly, access to camera controls, protection of camera from impact, stability in wind and turbulence, portability: Materials list for rig: RigCompetition
- Trash bag balloon construction
- Flights!!
- Flight analysis: what worked and didn't
- View captured images, rectify them
- Print map
- Trace map with tracing paper and/or digital tools
- History/future activities: how has the community evolved? how will it evolve in the next 5 years? 10? 50?
Units
In progress