Dr. Joel Thomas
Mr. Thomas, EdD, MBA, PMP, is a certified teacher is Math, Economics, and Human Geography with over several years of experience teaching. He has taught 10 year old-high schools students how to crisis map and trained other teachers to through Mapathons. His passion for teaching Crisis Mapping is rooted in his experience teaching through the most expensive disaster in human history The Tohoku Earthquake in Japan. Following the earthquake and tsunami he lead a coalition to do humanitarian relief work in the disaster area and took an active part in the paradigm changing Sendai Framework. In addition to teaching and humanitarian relief work, he has also enjoyed working in non-profit, private, public sectors on financial inclusion and poverty alleviation projects. He is bilingual and loves to travel visiting over 37 countries.
Intervention
This paper presents the learning experience and outcomes of a Mini-Mapathon course developed, implemented, and evaluated for the first time in a population of 28 Junior high school ELL students in three Human Geography courses at an international high school in Beijing, China. The Mini-Mapathon curriculum was designed and developed to answer three key research questions below. 1. Was the Mini-Mapathon curriculum effective in increasing geospatial knowledge and skills. 2. What is the interest in participating in crisis mapping events in the future? 3. Does gender play a role in self-assessment of mapping skills? The paper concludes with an analysis of students’ knowledge and skill gains, and attitudes towards map making. Other variables measured included students’ interest and motivation for participating in future Mapathons or starting Youth Mapper chapters in their future colleges or universities and their mapping skills growth before and after the Mini-Mapathon. The role of gender in self-assessment of mapping skills was also examined. Students’ survey responses were analyzed using mixed methods. In conclusion, the paper proposes that the Mini-Mapathon course could be implemented in other schools with a larger sample size to investigate learning outcomes and experiences. A website was built (www.crisismapping.weebly.com) to turn the Mini-Mapathon experience into an exportable educational activity that could be replicated or delivered in formal and informal learning environments. A recommendation for further research is proposed.