ACEP interns lead a T3 StoryMapping workshop in Anchorage
July 26, 2024
ACEP intern Kemi Adediran, standing, guides T3 students during a StoryMap exploration and brainstorming session.
ACEP summer interns Arana Rodriguez and Kemi Adediran, along with their mentor Emilia Sakai Hernandez, the program manager of ACEP’s Power Systems Integration program, led the first Teaching Through Technology workshop of the summer in Anchorage July 10.
The topic for the workshop was StoryMapping, using ArcGIS StoryMaps — a tool to transform maps and data into engaging and informative stories. The participating students, all of whom had completed a T3 summer program in the past, were part of one of the energy, climate and ocean strands for this summer. Drawing from these themes, the students created spatial maps woven into a story.
Rodriguez and Adediran guided 19 high school students and 2 high school graduates to brainstorm topics that interconnected social, environmental and infrastructure factors. As the students explored the ArcGIS mapping platform, each student thought about how to tell a story with spatial information, taking their StoryMaps in different, creative directions.
In just a few hours, the students came up with the following StoryMaps:
- Erosion exposure assessment of infrastructure in Alaska coastal and Native communities
- Alaska climate thresholds – Bethel community case study
- Absolute change in annual temperature – Chevak community case study
- Fishing in Southeast Alaska – abundance and stocks of concern
- Eielson Air Force Base micro-reactor and pop-thorium mines in Alaska
- Smoke and fires in the Fairbanks North Star Borough – air quality and management
- Alaska permafrost damage zones and local communities
- Chevak history from long ago and energy infrastructure
- Alaska global warming degrees – Shishmaref erosion case study
ACEP interns Kemi Adediran, left, and Arana Rodriguez teach T3 students about essential mapping skills.
“Our children are the future! And it is our job to ensure they have a safe and healthy environment to live their lives and continue to innovate and encourage change,” Rodriguez said.
StoryMapping is one tool tying together mapping and storytelling that allows students to both play with data and share their work in new creative ways and on new platforms, added Adediran.
“We were very impressed with the topics the T3 students came up with and are even more excited to see what great things they will do during their summer here,” she said.
The internship and StoryMap workshop are supported by the National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates program.