EEASC is kicking off a new initiative to reach out to Environmental Communicators. These are folks working to get environmental messages out to the general public.

We are excited to announce our first event, A Story Map Workshop, on Monday, February 24 from 10am-noon at ITology on Gervais Street. We think story maps (described below) can offer an exciting new way to reach out to our audiences.

We have a few spots lets. Please RSVP to jane.hiller@sonoco.com if you can attend, and we will send more info.

About Story Maps:

Story Maps are web applications which combine digitized, dynamic maps with other story elements (i.e., title, text, video, legend, popups, and other visuals) to help the creator effectively convey a message. There are a variety of templates available for use depending on the type of story you want to tell.

More resources:

• Example Story Map
  
• ESRI Story Map page
  

A message from Caitlyn:

I am very excited to help you all learn how to create your own Story Maps! The process is, for the most part, very user friendly (even for non-technical audiences!). I feel that this new technology could be quite valuable to formal and informal educators alike. Although I may be a bit biased as a graduate student in geography, I believe that stories really come alive when given a spatial context (i.e., put on a map).

A huge thank you to:

• Workshop leader,  Caitlyn Strachan, Masters Student in Geography at USC
• David Shelly, Congaree National Park, for introducing us to Caitlyn
• Jacq Buck, KMB, for arranging a venue
• ITology for graciously offering us a space for this event.