As one of the GRACE Program co-presenters we are very interested in opening a dialogue with other projects that have worked to place high schools students into intern positions. We believe students that learn how to make effective use of GIS and related Geospatial tools should use what they learn to work on Community Based Problem Solving activities that can actually be used by the local municipality. I hope some of you will join this discussion. What students learn to do with powerful technologies should be leveraged for the good of the entire community.

How is your program specifically geared towards serving under-represented groups? It appears that these groups include racial minorities, economically disadvantaged students, and women – but it isn’t clear how these specific groups are being targeted through the program.

Hello Randy Kochevar, we have several teachers and schools currently involved in the GRACE Program from the City of Detroit including both public and charter schools. Other participants come from more rural areas. We are currently actively recruiting teachers from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. One of the GRACE Program partner organizations, the Michigan Math and Science Centers Network has 33 locations in all areas of Michigan. They also are helping to recruit teachers and schools that represent students from underserved populations.

I’m intrigued to know more about the implementation model. What does it mean for a school to participate? Do you provide professional development and curricular materials for teachers? I’m also curious what kind of training and support you might provide to the mentors from industry.

For the teachers professional development, we are implementing two components: (1) a one week of summer institute; and (2) 30 hours of Professional Development (PD) as the follow-up for continued growth. After the PD, the teachers are required to work with students explorers, investigators, and interns. The standard involvements are listed below,

1. Students with at least three ArcGIS modules completed will be qualified as Explorers;

2. Explorers, after successfully completing a minimum of five additional ArcGIS lesson modules and case studies, grow into Investigators;

3. Investigators, after successfully completing a sequence of six ESRI Virtual Campus technical courses (with grades higher than 80% required for all six courses), meet the requirements as Internship Candidates;

4. Internship candidates, after being placed in a community or local company and finishing 8-10 weeks of GIS assignment, are called Interns.

Too bad you do not feature GEOGRAPHY as one of the STEM subjects for this grant. Is it possible for you to make the globe turn the right way?

Best of luck on this ambitious project.

Kudos to everyone involved in this important effort. I know many of you and I salute you and I say – keep on waving the GIS banner. It is more important now with our world facing the challenges it is, than ever, and more important now that students have critical thinking skills in the 21st Century.

This means a great deal coming from a GIS leader such as yourself. I agree wholeheartedly with your observation about the need for critical thinking – and practicing GIS exercises all the higher level skills – application, analysis, evaluation and synthesis. One element that helps to provide teachers with an avenue to implementing GIS in the classroom is the career preparation aspect of GIS instruction. I like to tell teachers that GIS can provide an alternative career path for them as well as for their students!

Wonderful idea and highly innovative! I wifi forward to a colleague in another state. Thanks, Dr. Saroki!

Great video and a fascinating project. I’m interested to hear more about implementation and the support you provide to both teachers and the schools. Do you include administrators in the PD? Have you collected any data on teachers’ implementation and support needed?

Professional Development is focusing on Michigan Middle and High School teachers.

This is a very timely project and you have tapped into what most STEM initiatives are not currently doing. You are focusing on those underrepresented segments of Michigan (too bad you are not in Texas) and introducing those populations to material and experiences that they would otherwise continue to lack. As a computer science teacher I am tired of hearing from the tech industries how they cannot find qualified works but they are not willing to have students intern in their organization or connect directly with the classroom teachers instead of funding organization that in-turn just give drips to the school if anything. Your team is doing excellent work and I hope it bears fruits soon as Skilled and Knowledge labor in STEM continues to diminish.

Thanks invitation to join GRACE project Group, I will certainly join and continue to follow your wonderful work and hopefully continue to learn more from your experiences in this project.