GrassrootsMapping
Curriculum Development
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
- Grassroots Mapping Lima implemented a curriculum based on this document: Grassroots Mapping Lima Curriculum
- Nu Vo Workshop - 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 Department Of Play 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 Balloon Materials List 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 Soda Bottle Rig or Picavet suspension and attaching to a balloon to do a short Balloon Aerial Photography 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 Soda Bottle Rig or a Balloon Aerial Photography (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: Rig Competition
- 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