The Teachers College wanted to communicate the impact of its grant-funded research projects broadly, particularly to public school teachers throughout Arizona. To accomplish this, MLFTC created a new position for a Geospatial Data Specialist and hired Melissa McGehee (a graduate of the ASU Masters of Advanced Study in GIS program) to work with MLFTC researchers. McGehee had extensive experience with ArcGIS Online from her graduate school days and was able to leverage that, working closely with a team within MLFTC, to create media rich Story Maps for several grant-funded research projects.
Now, one of their Story Maps, “Arizona Ready-for-Rigor,” has won a national award for Outstanding Educational Publications using the Internet, from the National School Public Relations Association.
Congratulations to MLFTC on their innovative approach to public education. Using online maps to communicate the impact of grant-funded research is a wonderful extension of the requirement in many grants for “dissemination” and “engaging wider audiences.”
by Mary Whelan