Project Overview

This project will initiate the formation of a researcher-practitioner partnership (RPP) to articulate K-12 pathways that will expand opportunities for all students to develop geo-computational thinking skills. This pilot RPP is composed of geographers, computer science educators, and geospatial technology specialists experienced in serving underrepresented minority students and communities. This exploratory research is to inform educational standards and tested approaches to help institutions understand the capacity they need to modernize geography education and to broaden the participation of underrepresented minorities in geo-computational curriculum. Building capacity for inclusive pathways in computational geography will increase the potential of all students to contribute to the national innovative ecosystem. This pilot will provide other regions or states the foundational knowledge to design, develop, and implement a strategy to modernize their pathways to computationally-intensive jobs and college majors. In 2015 the Government Accountability Office raised concerns that "throughout the country, K-12 students may not be acquiring adequate skills in and exposure to geography, which are needed to meet workforce needs in geospatial and other geography-related industries". Graduates with a combination of training in geography and computational thinking is in even shorter supply, so employers across the public and private sectors are limited and forced to choose between hiring a geographer with limited or no computational skills, or a computer science graduate with limited or no expertise in geographic information. This RPP will initiate the design of a long-term mixed-methods approach combining surveys with qualitative data collection to allow other regions or states to design, develop, and implement geo-computational curriculum.

Team

Funding

NSF logo     Senior Personnel - NSF Award CNS-1837577: Encoding Geography: Building Capacity for Inclusive Geo-Computational Thinking with Geospatial Technologies. PI: Coline Dony, Co-PIs: Atsushi Nara, Sergio Rey, Michael Solem, $299,989, 11/1/2018-10/31/2020.

Publications