Citizen Science GIS Teacher Academy on February 2: Teachers apply by January 18

The Citizen Science GIS Teacher Academy: An Interactive Workshop for Florida Teachers (5^th-8^th grades) With an Emphasis on Our Coasts & Community Engagement will be held on Saturday February 2, 2019 from 8:30 am-12:00 pm @ University of Central Florida.Maps, apps, and drones for teachers! Geospatial technologies (geographic information systems, mapping, GPS, location-based services on phones and tablets, and drones) are powerful tools for youth, teachers and community engagement. In this free teacher workshop, we will provide an overview of some of the ways student learning and engagement can occur with these technologies, and we will challenge teachers to brainstorm creative uses of these technologies in their own classrooms. This is not your standard teacher workshop.“The Citizen Science GIS Teacher Academy should be an incredible day to learn and collaborate with other teachers as we work together to showcase the power of geospatial technologies in society and along the coast of Florida as well,” said Dr. Timothy L. Hawthorne, assistant professor of GIS and workshop facilitator.We’ll keep the lecturing to a minimum and focus on interactive activities teachers can do with their students.  This will include working with online and mobile mapping applications and flying mini-drones!!!“We are thrilled to host this interactive, hands-on teacher workshop.  Teachers can expect to have fun while engaging with technologies their students probably already use on a daily basis, but don’t even realize they are using!  GIS, mobile mapping apps, and location-based services play a huge role in our daily lives –from traffic apps like Waze or Google Maps to finding nearby restaurants on Google or Tripadvisor.  And drones are everywhere right now. We’ll fly them in this workshop.” said Hawthorne.Participating teachers will take home a series of lesson plans to share in their classrooms. And if they agree to support a future school visit with the Citizen Science GIS team, they will receive a free Parrot Mambo mini-drone to keep for their classroom. Participating teachers will also brainstorm ideas and lessons for the GeoBus at UCF program, set to launch in 2019.Apply now to this free workshop by filling out the Google Form at: http://www.citizensciencegis.org/teachPriority Application Deadline: January 18, 2019. Share with your fellow teachers on social media with #citizensciencegis and #geobus.Questions: Contact Dr. Timothy Hawthorne, Assistant Professor of GIS, University of Central Florida at timothy.hawthorne@ucf.edu or 407.823.1030.