Geospatial Niagara – Geographic Education Town Hall Meeting
So, what do you do when approximately 8,000 practitioners of the Humanities and Social Sciences domain converge at the university in your home town? Well… since it’s not every day when an event of this magnitude presents itself so close to home, you jump on it!
Geospatial Niagara is proud to announce the Geographic Education Town Hall Meeting!
Tuesday, May 27, 2014 – 6:00pm – 9:00pm (Doors open at 5:30)
Laura Secord Secondary School – James H. Smith Performing Arts Theatre
349 Niagara Street, St. Catharines, ON
This town hall meeting has been scheduled to coincide with the Canadian Association of Geographers (CAG) , Canadian Cartographic Association (CCA) and Environmental Studies Association of Canada (ESAC) meetings occurring as part of Congress 2014 being held at Brock University, May 24-30, 2014.
As the founder of Geospatial Niagara, and a Fellow of the RCGS, I felt it was imperative that the opportunity presented by the occurrence of this event in Niagara be capitalized upon to move forward and promote the St. John’s Declaration and the Advancement of Geographic Education in Canada to students, parents, educators and the wider community.
The goal of this Town Hall is to engage students in grades 7-12 (although any students interested in a geographic education/career are encouraged to attend) to:
a) Raise awareness of the St. John’s Declaration region wide;
b) Promote the importance of a geographic education across all local boards of education;
c) Provide insights to student/parent attendees as to the career paths available with a geographic education;
d) Answer questions posed by the student/parent attendees in regards to a geographic education;
e) Spotlight the program offerings at Niagara College and Brock University in the geo/environmental /earth sciences fields;
f) Be the spark that ignites a passion in students to pursue a geographic education so they can be part of the talent pool that will create and attract a geospatial technology/information cluster to Niagara.
Currently confirmed panelists include:
Dr. Brent Hall MNZIS FRCGS – Director of Education and Research – ESRI Canada
Dr. Amanda Hooykaas – Adjunct Professor Human Geography – University of Waterloo/University of Guelph
James Boxall – Director Dalhousie GIScience Center, Governor Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Chair – Canadian Geomatics Community Round Table.
Ian Smith M.Sc., OLS, OLIP, EP – Instructor – Niagara College GIS/Geospatial Management and Environmental Programs
Mark Lowry – Geography and Spatial Technologies Instructional Leader – Social World Studies and Humanities – Toronto District School Board
Jonathan Fletcher – Program Leader for Canadian and World Studies – Port Colborne High School, Vice President of Communications – Ontario Association of Geographic and Environmental Educators (OAGEE)
And more to be announced…
I encourage those in Southern Ontario and even Western New York who are reading this post that know of a student(s) interested in or on the fence about pursuing a geography or related degree, to share the link to the Eventbrite RSVP page set up for this event. Geospatial Niagara – Geographic Education Town Hall Meeting. Event Password – geoniagara
It is certainly going to be informative, so don’t miss this opportunity!
I’d like to personally thank ESRI Canada, CAG, OAGEE, RCGS, Canadian Geographic Education, GoGeomatics Canada, the District School Board of Niagara (DSBN) , the Niagara Catholic District School Board (NCDSB), Niagara Workforce Planning Board, Niagara College and Brock University for their encouragement and participatory support.
For further information or to submit questions for the panelists please contact:
@geoniagara or #NiaGeoEd
