She Maps is proud to announce a partnership with The Surveyors Trust, to support the development of Digital Technologies education in Queensland and the search for Queensland’s Coolest School. This partnership also aims to support the cultivation of STEM diversity in the classroom, as young girls now have an option to pursue a unique type of STEM program that’s different from biology, chemistry, and the like.
Our partnership with The Surveyor’s Trust will provide every school in Queensland with free access to the She Maps online Classroom Drone Essentials and Map My School Teacher Professional Development courses. This will give schools an opportunity to go in the running to be the ‘Coolest School in Queensland’.
Drones are becoming an essential tool for the surveying and spatial science industry. The ‘Coolest School in Queensland’ competition will introduce drone mapping skills to students and teachers across Queensland whilst also encouraging them to promote diversity in STEM. It also requires students to work out how much shade they have on their school grounds per student using satellite images and spatial data skills.
The online Classroom Drone Essentials course has already been taught to teachers in 2018. Since then, over 600 teachers have learnt the skills to bring drones into their curriculum via our online and face to face programs.
Just like iPads are now a central part of classroom learning, coding, drones and data will become a large part of learning over the next few years. The courses are aligned to the Australian Curriculum and give teachers a head start on the Digital Technologies learning area in particular.
The partnership with The Surveyors’ Trust has four key parts. Each part aims to increase the capacity of teachers in the use of digital technologies as well as to raise the profile of the surveying and spatial science industry.
She Maps online Classroom Drone Essentials Teacher Professional Development is being provided free of charge to all Queensland schools. The program is fully mapped to the Australian Curriculum and includes lesson plans and activities.
The program design and all online content has been developed by Dr Karen Joyce, a practicing University Academic with 20 years of teaching, research and online education experience, with input and quality assurance from qualified teachers from Primary and Secondary Schools.
Probably without even knowing it, you are familiar with spatial technologies. You use Google Maps on your phone or GPS when you go for a run! These are crucial technologies for our modern world and the spatial industry is booming.
The Map My School course gives teachers all they need to understand how to bring spatial technology into their classroom. Step by step set up instructions on the use of ArcGIS Pro (with a free schools licence) with detailed student activity ideas around the mapping of the amount of shade on their school grounds.
Schools will be able to enter into the ‘Coolest School in Queensland’ competition with winners being announced in Term 4 at the ‘Science Meets Parliament’ event on 26/27 November.
Schools are able to enter into the competition are are required to submit a two-minute (maximum) video in the category of their choice (or both separately!) showing us just how cool your school is. There is a ‘use of drones in the classroom’ category and a ‘map my school category’.
Over 2019, She Maps will feature women in the Survey and Spatial Industry who are doing amazing and interesting things. Too often the stereotype of a surveyor and spatial scientists doesn’t meet the interests of today’s generation. And one of which is a program that recognises the importance of diversity in STEM education. So, we want to change that, and showcase the many and varied career opportunities available!
Anthony Schmidt, the Chair of The Surveyors’ Trust says ‘The surveying and spatial sciences industry is an essential part of enabling technology to function in our built and ecological environments. But we must ensure that our industry is promoted as being relevant to the next generation.
This partnership with She Maps, who have excellent resources for schools, with a strong link to education and industry experts, ensures that we can raise the profile of our industry.’
Dr Karen Joyce, Education Director of She Maps says ‘It is extremely exciting to be able to provide these resources and activities to every school in Queensland. We have developed our resources with educational professionals and industry experts to ensure that they not only meet the curriculum needs of teachers, but also the future skill requirements of our students.
The Surveyors Trust are taking this very proactive step to ensure that together we can raise the profile of the industry whilst also giving our teachers and students essential skills.’
Learn how to create a safe environment for multicultural students to successfully increase STEM diversity in your school – What is Unconscious Bias and How Can We Challenge it in the Classroom?
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She Maps aims to bring much needed diversity and support to STEM. We do this by providing drone and geospatial programs to teachers and schools across the globe.
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