Assessment in our Map Making Project

Student assessment in our Synergy Project:

Students will be assessed on their contribution to the Google community map, as well as through their own written reflections on connection to place. Each student has done a practice post on a non-public copy of the map to ensure that they can manipulate the technology and has begun to brainstorm a list of local places that they connect to. Written reflections (or video reflections) will occur on student-created blogs that can then be linked to their uploaded map photos. The Geography 12 students have specific learning outcomes that describe interconnections between humanity and the natural environment and they describe these connections in their blogs.Project assessment:

As with all large multi-disciplinary projects, ours continues to evolve as new students become involved and new ideas emerge. It was designed to have this flexibility which allows us to adapt quickly.  Each time we have one of the Synergy group phone calls with the other schools, our Parkland team meets to review the current moment of the project and make recommendations for the coming month. This has been helpful to identify both problem areas and what’s working well.  Our current difficulty is finding ways to incorporate Indigenous students and community members

Feb Project Update

Practicing with our Map!
With our new semester, we have the Geography 12 students taking on the caretaking of the map and we started practicing on a draft version of the map.  We had students walk around the school taking photos to then add to our map.  We also had students add points of interest, create new layers of food, schools, businesses and fun spots.  They got to practice with labels, shapes, distances and media.  Overall, everyone feels much more comfortable with using the map and contributing to the map. 

Parkland VR Tour

Also at Parkland, we have been looking at ways to share our school digitally, and connect the inside with the outside on our Map we have been building.    It is easy for us to add pictures, videos and links on our shared google maps, with layers and labels, showing the environment around our school.

However, to get into our school and see inside our programs, spaces, shops, theatre and library, it is a little more challenging.  Satellite imagery does not show inside our school, nor does google street view.  We needed to find another solution to help others see inside our school.

With the help of a few students and staff, we were able to go around the school and take special photos called "Photo spheres" that are available on most smartphones.  This is a photo that is made up of many photos in all directions stitched together to form one seamless photo capturing all around you.  They are effective for capturing a sense of space and distance, as well as a fun opportunity to embed some 'easter eggs' in the different scenes.
Below is our "Tour" which is put together using the Google Tour Creator.  This is  great tool to create your own Virtual tours using a combination of Photospheres and Google Street view.  There are also many more Virtual Tours that others have published and shared that allow our students to explore around the world and in many digital environments.


Check out this 10 'scene' virtual tour of Parkland Secondary and get a glimpse of inside our school.