Making Community Connections: The Orton Family Foundation Community Mapping Program is a new book from ESRI Press designed to bring teams of teachers and their students together with community members to study problems, resources, conditions, and other matters of interest and importance to the community.
(GISuser.com Press) Redlands, California Making Community Connections: The Orton Family Foundation Community Mapping Program is a new book from ESRI Press designed to bring teams of teachers and their students together with community members to study problems, resources, conditions, and other matters of interest and importance to the community.
The book serves as an introduction to the principles, strategies, tools, resources, and lessons involved in mapping projects modeled after the Orton Family Foundation’s Community Mapping Program (CMP). Materials in the book have been constructed to provide a solid foundation and flexible framework for original projects created and developed by students, their teachers, and their communities.
"I’ve been training teachers to use GIS for 12 years now, helping them apply the technology with their students on local issues, but there has never been a cookbook approach for doing this until Making Community Connections," says Cliff B. Craig, Utah State University professor of geography education and Utah Geographic Alliance Coordinator. "This book gives a step-by-step process to follow, plus charts, guidelines, and explanations that are easy to understand and apply."
Since 1995, the Orton Family Foundation has developed planning tools that help students and teachers learn about geographic information system (GIS), global positioning system (GPS), and other geospatial technologies. The not-for-profit foundation uses income from the Orton family’s 54-year old retail catalogue company, the Vermont Country Store, to create educational programs, workshops, publications, video presentations, software products, and other planning resources that train citizens how to help their communities meet their specific needs.
Making Community Connections uses case studies and project materials that provide a solid foundation and flexible framework for original projects created and developed by students. The book introduces readers to the CMP that teaches K-12 students to use mapping and decision making tools to understand the needs and issues in their local communities and work toward positive change. The projects outlined in the book are easily worked into existing curricula in primary and secondary schools, alternative learning centers, and other educational organizations.
"Making Community Connections is a success story," says Dr. Joseph J. Kerski, United States Geological Survey education/GIS outreach geographer. "Having been involved in geography education that uses GIS, GPS, and remote sensing technologies for many years, this book is the first I have seen that brings together GIS technology, citizenship, geography, and place-based study."
Making Community Connections (ISBN 1-58948-071-6) is for active and curious citizens who want to learn about the world by taking it on, one community and one issue at a time. The 196-page book retails for $19.95 and is available for purchase at www.esri.com/esripress or by calling 1-800-447-9778. If ordering from outside the United States, please contact your local ESRI distributor; see www.esri.com/international for a current distributor list. Additional information about the Orton Family Foundation and the CMP is available at www.communitymap.org.
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