Launching EcoGIS: Mapping environmental justice and beyond

By Leah Boveda, Development and Comunications Intern at trubel&co.

This blog is part of the Afterschool Alliance's Collective for Youth Empowerment in STEM & Society (CYESS) initiative. This series of blogs highlights examples of programs working at the intersection of STEM and civic engagement. We are excited to showcase the systemic change young people can make in their communities when their afterschool programs support them to layer action onto their STEM learning. If you would like to know more or submit a blog about your youth action program, please contact us.

“I celebrate teaching that enables transgressions — a movement against and beyond boundaries. It is a movement which makes education the practice of freedom.” - bell hooks

One of the most effective ways to encourage students to focus on their studies is by centering their experiences. At trubel&co, we develop programs that allow underrepresented students in STEM to see themselves as both the researcher and research subject. This spring, we launched EcoGIS: Mapping Environmentally Just Futures, a mostly virtual, bite-sized version of our flagship program Mapping Justice. Like Mapping Justice, our new workshop series uses GIS (Geographic Information Systems) to teach students digital mapping and data analytics skills, helping them raise awareness of climate justice issues impacting their communities in Detroit and across Michigan.

The high school students who joined our EcoGIS workshops learned how to analyze the messaging behind data visuals like graphs and ethically map their own stories. Over the course of eight weeks, these “trubelmakers” collected and mapped data through GIS, culminating in a gallery walk hosted by the University of Michigan where they presented their research. Here, students explored differences in pollution levels and access to green spaces across Michigan, examining how pollutants are typically concentrated in low-income areas.

As our students realized that where a person lives shapes their quality of life, they observed that climate change “is impacting the environment and, in turn, … different demographics unequally.” Several groups, for instance, identified a relationship between a neighborhood’s average income and its air or water quality. Our trubelmakers’ work demonstrated the power of using “real data on people's lives” and environmental research “to create a tangible visual.”

After the workshops, when asked how GIS could be used in the future, students were able to construct potential research questions GIS could help answer, situating these questions within their local Michigan communities. This reflects our goal of empowering youth to think through local narratives about their surroundings while tackling the environmental issues closest to them. They now understand how these technical tools can be applied to investigate social and environmental inequities that directly affect their communities.

STEM becomes more accessible when students are encouraged to see it as a fundamental part of their everyday lives. None of EcoGIS’ participants had any prior experience with GIS, yet within eight 90-minute workshops, they not only learned how to navigate geospatial data analytics tools but also mastered how to communicate effectively through data. Some students were excited to envision future projects, coming up with detailed ideas like: “Nearby in Ada Township, lots of industrialization has occurred in the past 10 years, and I think it would be interesting to see how this has impacted the river flowing directly next to the town. GIS could be used to create a map showing the relationship between new developments and the health of the river water, to show how industrialization is polluting and harming the waters.”

They also began to think critically about how data could inspire change. As one student reflected, “I would use the maps we created to discover what Detroit might lack and think of possible solutions to address that.”