Tag Archives: citizen science gis

Belize Summer A 2020 Study Abroad Course Now Accepting Applications

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Join us for a research experience of a lifetime in Belize Summer A 2020.

About the Courses: In either SYA 4959 (undergraduate students) or SYA 5941 (graduate students), students work with communities in Belize (an English speaking country) on real-world research projects. Students will learn an in-demand research method in a high-growth technology career field. We will explore the Belize Barrier Reef and several different landscapes across Belize. We will learn how to use GIS mapping, apps, and drones. Students spend 5 days on land and 4 on islands along the world’s second largest reef system. No previous experience with GIS is needed.

Apply through UCF Abroad at: https://studyabroad.ucf.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgramAngular&id=10108

Audience: This exciting study abroad course in Belize is open to all graduate and undergraduate students at UCF (and beyond). All majors are welcome. This 3 credit course counts as an elective course in both of the UCF GIS certificate programs. It is a research-based course. No previous GIS and mapping experience is required.

Apps due February 15, 2020. But apply soon, this course will fill before the application date.

Program Fee: $2400-2500 (all expenses including airfare, lodging, tours, transportation, and meals). One of the most economical abroad experiences at UCF. Plus normal tuition and university fees for a 3 credit course.

Watch the hype video here:

Any questions, please contact the program director, Dr. Timothy Hawthorne at timothy.hawthorne@ucf.edu.

 

Everyday, Extraordinary People are Science’s Greatest Hope

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On September 29, I had the honor of a lifetime. I was able to share our message of hope on the big stage at National Geographic as one of a handful of invited talks at the first National Geographic Education Summit. I focused on the innovative work of Citizen Science GIS and our community partners in Belize and Florida. I also shared my hope for science, the hope that we can re-commit to the Golden Rule in our work to remind folks that science can be informed by everyday, extraordinary citizens.

Below, is the transcript of my talk. Enjoy, and please let me know what you think.

And a special shout-out to our Belizean youth collaborators from Miss Bertie’s Community Library in Hopkins Village and the kids that have been part of our GeoBus build in Florida. You all are the future of science, and that future begins now with your ideas, passions, and creativity. Keep on believing in yourselves and those around you. You are science’s greatest hope.

“The Golden Rule: The Future of Science Rests on the Shoulders of Everyday, Extraordinary Citizens”

Remarks from Dr. Timothy Hawthorne at National Geographic from 10/29/2018.

I believe in the Golden Rule.

Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

Kindness, empathy, hope, compassion. These principles already guide you, the amazing K-12 teachers in this room, as you inspire science’s next generation.

But you know what? Sometimes when we grow up and actually become scientists we forget your lessons and forget the Golden Rule.

Good morning, I’m Tim, but the kids I work with in Belize call me Dr. Drone. Because of these kids, I am  hopeful. They make me believe we can put the Golden Rule back into research.

I am the founder of Citizen Science GIS. We use maps, apps and drones in our work. But I’m most proud of the work we do to get everyday, extraordinary citizens and academics to work together.

When Citizen Science GIS begins work in a new environment we go in believing that the folks living in these communities will know more than we do.

That’s right, we believe scientists don’t have all the answers.

Because of this, our science in Belize is guided by the knowledge of 12 year old Karim. Karim wakes up at 5 am during his summer break to map beach debris and sargassum on the coast. His pure dedication makes me hopeful that we will find a way to address plastic pollution within my lifetime.

12 year old Karim mapping marine debris with Elli and Amber from our team

We work with Belizean partners like 16 year old Isani to drone map vulnerable Mesoamerican reef islands and coast lines. He gives me hope that communities can inform the science needed to address climate change.

16 year old Isani flying a drone in Hopkins Village, Belize. photo credit: Hopkins Uncut

You see some of these places in Belize barely register in satellite imagery in online mapping platforms. Over the last two years we used affordable drones to completely change the way we see over 200 islands and coasts.

And we’re just getting started.

Back home in Florida, we’re building the nation’s first GeoBus. It’s a big bus…40 feet to be exact…decked out with all kinds of gear to make it a mobile geospatial technology lab. Starting in early 2019, it will visit schools around Florida to cultivate an explorer mindset in over 20,000 children each year.

The nation’s first GeoBus at UCF.

We’re empowering Florida kids for the same reason that we include communities in our fieldwork from the beginning: the Golden Rule. We have a unique opportunity to show children just how valuable they are as scientists right now.

My friends: I am a scientist, and I’m here to tell you that everyday, extraordinary people are the greatest hope for science.

Let’s all take that hope out into the world to explore, to take action, and to start making a difference today.

And let’s remember the Golden Rule in all that we do.

GIS Day at UCF on November 29 for K-12 Classes! Pre-Register Now

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Get excited for GIS Day 2018 at UCF co-organized by Citizen Science GIS and GeoBus to be held on Thursday, November 29 from 10 am to 1 pm! Please pre-register your class or group as soon as possible. We will be opening up a larger public invitation on Tuesday of next week.

Pre-register now at: https://goo.gl/forms/ac8Qjka9ZzcUFCz23

Pre-register your class, organization, family or just yourself for our 2018 Maps, Apps, and Drones On-Campus Event, hosted by UCF’s Citizen Science GIS, GeoBus, Department of Sociology, and iSTEM on the UCF main campus. Come learn about maps, apps and drones with our Citizen Science GIS team and use these cool science and technology tools on site with Dr. Timothy L. Hawthorne from UCF Sociology, and the Citizen Science GIS team! And get a sneak peak of our new 42 foot long city bus, the nation’s first GeoBus, that will begin in early 2019! During the November 29 event, students will engage in an interactive assembly and then participate in hands-on learning activities that may include: using mapping apps, creating crowd-sourced data, flying mini-drones, and more!

Target Audience: 3rd grade and up.

This event will fill quickly. It is free and open to all educators and their students (including home schoolers), but pre-registration is required. We are limited to no more than 350 attendees in the student union for this free STEM education event.

If you have questions about the event, please contact timothy.hawthorne@ucf.edu. If you would like to learn more about our research and educational programs please visit our website at www.citizensciencegis.org. Citizen Science GIS is an international award-winning organization at University of Central Florida committed to changing the ways communities and scientists work together in research and education.

Deadline to pre-register is November 2, 2018. And even more exciting, our GeoBus is getting closer. The seats are out, and we are now designing the interior! It’s coming, and it’s going to be big for geospatial technology education across Florida. Please encourage your teacher and education friends to like our Facebook and Twitter pages to keep up to date on GeoBus! They can do so at www.facebook.com/citizensciencegis or Twitter at www.twitter.com/citizen_gis. And I’ve attached a mock-up of our GeoBus design. Please share with your schools to build the excitement, especially with PTA’s, principals, directors, etc.

Best wishes, and we hope to see you soon!

Cheers,

Tim

New $1.25 Million NSF Award to Smithsonian Institution and Dr. Hawthorne’s Open Reef Team

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Open Reef heads west partnering with Smithsonian Institution on new $1.25 million National Science Foundation grant

August 21, 2018

A new collaborative $1.25 million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation will support the Open Reef initiative of Citizen Science GIS at University of Central Florida. The Open Reef team led by Timothy L. Hawthorne, assistant professor of GIS in the Department of Sociology and College of Sciences GIS Cluster at UCF, will collaborate with MarineGeo researchers at the Smithsonian Institution to drone map eelgrass meadow sites along the west coast of North America from Baja Mexico to Canada. The collaborative grant entitled “Collaborative Research: The role of a keystone pathogen in the geographic and local-scale ecology of eelgrass decline in the eastern Pacific” was awarded in July by the NSF Biological Oceanography Program to a team of researchers led by Principal Investigator Dr. Emmett Duffy of the Smithsonian Institution. Hawthorne serves as PI of the UCF portion of the grant work.

Hawthorne and the Open Reef team will provide drone mapping expertise and training for community partners to use consumer-level drones for citizen science in west coast study sites. Hawthorne’s team will also help to create an open and freely accessible mapping portal through Esri’s ArcGIS Online of all drone imagery collected from the project to support greater scientific discovery in the field sites. The drone imagery will be processed with Esri’s Drone2Map software.

“Through this major NSF award, we are genuinely excited to launch a new portion of our Open Reef work along the west coast of North America with the MarineGeo team at the Smithsonian Institution. A collaboration of this magnitude is exciting for us as UCF researchers, but it should be equally exciting for the general public and citizen scientists as the results we aim to generate through the collection of drone imagery and related mapping data could revolutionize the way in which we understand these complex and important marine ecosystems,” said Hawthorne.

The collaborative grant includes faculty and students from a variety of universities and organizations, including MarineGeo at the Smithsonian Institution, Cornell University, University of California-Davis, and University of Central Florida.

Hawthorne and his Open Reef team already had an existing relationship with the Smithsonian Institution as part of their UCF Citizen Science GIS NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site. In the REU Site, Hawthorne’s team works in Belize to drone map Smithsonian MarineGeo sites along the Mesoamerican Reef (pictured below). That first partnership with MarineGeo through the REU Site led to the inclusion of the Citizen Science GIS at UCF team in this new grant.

Carrie Bow Caye Belize, home of the Smithsonian MarineGeo Site.

Hawthorne’s funding from the UCF portion of the new NSF award will allow the Open Reef team to expand research opportunities to the next generation of community-engaged scientists.  Funds will help support a new interdisciplinary post-doctoral scholar along with several undergraduate students. The UCF Office of Research is providing additional matching support for the new post-doc position.

“This major NSF grant is a testament to the fact that dynamic teams of scientists and social scientists can work together to explore some of the most pressing environmental challenges of our time. We are excited to work with the world’s foremost marine scientists and the next generation of scientists in the use of drone technologies for understanding these ecosystems, while I also exposing science’s next generation to the opportunities of working across disciplines in a project of this magnitude,” said Hawthorne.

To view the NSF public abstract of the collaborative project, please visit: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1829890&HistoricalAwards=false

For more information about Open Reef and Citizen Science GIS: please visit www.citizensciencegis.org. Citizen Science GIS is a 2017 Esri Special Achievement in GIS Award winner. The mission of Citizen Science GIS is to change the way communities and scientists work together across the globe to visualize local knowledge through geographic information systems, maps, apps, and drones.

Mapping Marine Debris with Youth and their Local Knowledge on Caye Caulker, Belize

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Caye Caulker, Belize

11/12/2015

Today I had the privilege of returning to work with Form 3 and Form 2 students at the Ocean Academy on Caye Caulker, Belize.  As usual I was energized by the youth, particularly their ideas and their active engagement in the lessons we completed together.  Unlike previous trips with groups of college students in my study abroad course, I went in alone today.  It was somewhat terrifying being that outnumbered, but we had a great, great day.

It began with three simple questions.  Where is marine debris on this island? What do I know about? What can we do with maps to raise awareness about marine debris?

Maptastic selfies are the best way to show the power of collaboration with GIS.

Maptastic selfies are the best way to show the power of collaboration with GIS.

 

In the form 3 morning science class we first analyzed the data and maps created in last May’s study abroad program where youth and college students collected marine debris data using tablets loaded with ArcGIS Collector.  Today, the students concluded that debris is an island-wide problem, but it is most concentrated in non-business district areas and areas away from the eye of the tourist and boat docks.  They’ve really created a powerful visual that can attract greater attention to this important issue.

IMG_2252

Ocean Academy form 3 students mapping and analyzing their marine debris data from last year’s study abroad course.

 

Then we moved to the form 2 English class and introduced these students to the power of mapping and GIS (and we never even used the technology).  We had them create a map of Belize on the board and identify where they felt cyber bullying was most prominent.  This was one of their lessons in their English class so we wanted to connect our maps discussion to that.  They had some great ideas and without even knowing it created a database and project design that we can use to begin a cyber bullying mapping project in Belize in the coming months.  It’s going to be a challenging and exciting project and we are going to connect it with our People Loving People kindness mapping project as well.  More in early 2016.

Brainstorming a mapping strategy for cyber-bullying in Belize. Students drew a map predicting where they thought the hotspots would be located.

Form 2 students brainstorming a mapping strategy for cyber-bullying in Belize. Students drew a map predicting where they thought the hotspots would be located.

 

Then after lunch we brought together form 2 and 3 for some collaborative mapping using ArcGIS Online.  The youth focused again on marine debris, this time mapping their perceptions of the problem of marine debris.  Students were asked to map where debris was an issue and to estimate the severity of the problem from their collaborative memory of the spaces on the island.  They then mapped what the felt were the business, residential and environmental reserve districts to overlay their debris perceptions over to visualize spatial patterns.  What did they learn?  The power of the crowd can be harnessed to map things important to youth and can quickly tell a powerful and highly visual story.  About debris specifically?  Again, like they learned in the fieldwork last May, once you get away from the tourist and business districts, debris is not as likely to be cleaned up.  The youth are thinking about using their map results and some follow-up work to present data and solutions to the Caye Caulker Council.  Check out the online map at http://ucfonline.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=f6dc95764912444a85cfba9f069c0a6c

Form 2 and 3 students working together using ArcGIS Online to map their perceptions of marine debris and land use patterns on the island.

Form 2 and 3 students working together using ArcGIS Online to map their perceptions of marine debris and land use patterns on the island.

 

What a talented group of passionate and knowledgeable youth.

I’m excited for our return to Caye Caulker in early 2016 and continued collaborations with Ocean Academy.  Partnerships like this are what community GIS and citizen science are all about, and we are thrilled to continue this important work in the future.  Youth and geospatial technologies: a winning combination!

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