Green Map Project Teachers Workshop (Ogden: Sept 22)

Think Global, Map Local!

Who: WSU Moving Company and Department of Geography, with RDT
What: Green Map Project Teachers Workshop
Where Ogden School District Offices, 1950 Monroe Blvd, PDC-C room
When: Wednesday, September 22, 3:30-5:30 pm

The Weber State University Department of Performing Arts and Department of Geography invite Ogden School District school teachers to participate in a workshop to learn more about the Green Map Project. The workshop will be held Wednesday, September 22 from 3:30-5:30 pm at the Ogden School District Office, 1950 Monroe Boulevard, PDC-C Room. Due to limited space, teachers should RSVP to Carrie Maxson at maxsonc@ogdensd.org
WSU is partnering with Repertory Dance Theatre to create a unique Arts/Environmental Education Program for schools based on the Green Map® System, a global movement encouraging communities to take inventory of sustainability practices. Through “place-based” education, inter-disciplinary activities and the arts, participants will utilize the Green Map ® System tools to actively engage 30,000 young people in Utah in the life of their communities and inspire a dynamic understanding of “place.”
Joanne Lawrence, WSU dance faculty, and Dr. Julie Rich, geography faculty, are coordinating the activities in Ogden. WSU geography and dance students will work with schools K-12 to become engaged in the mapping of Ogden to identify sustainable living. Under the guidance of the Ogden Green Map Steering Committee, led by Lawrence, Rich and Linda Smith RDT Executive/Artistic Director WSU dancers, community volunteers, and leaders in the environmental education community will assist students and teachers in developing a Green Map inventory of Ogden as a pathway to develop life-long learning skills.
The process, enhanced by a movement language inspired by the Green Map icons®, will celebrate environmental progress and help identify concerns. It will anchor our community’s strengths, assets and challenges on an enduring, dynamic map of our own landscape and celebrate this map in art, neighborhood by neighborhood, school by school. The process leads to the creation of a new paradigm in environmental education, a model program to be replicated in communities nation-wide.
The Green Map Project consists of three concurrent inter-related activities: The creation of a Green Map of Ogden City (digital and printed); Arts and Environmental Education outreach activities including lectures, movement classes, teacher workshops, demonstrations for teachers and students; performance events for schools and the community, with a public performance February 23rd, 2011 at WSU.
Green Mapping has been adopted in over 600 cities world wide and helps individuals understand their community through the literal use of a map that will be created by students using beautifully designed Green Map icons © to identify places such as nature preserves and cultural centers, history, geography, environmental justice and activism, green enterprise and efforts to improve the environment. Students in the project will create paths and techniques of inquiry, exploration and expression while learning to be thoughtful and productive citizens. (www: greenmap.org)
Dr. Julie Rich is the WSU geography faculty working on this project. When asked about the unusual collaboration she says, “Geographers investigate spatial patterns on the earth’s surface. In a way we look at how the natural world is choreographed, so blending the science of geography and the art form of dance is as natural as the world we live in.”
For more information:
Joanne Lawrence, dance, jlawrence@weber.edu or 801 626 6479
Julie Rich, geography: jrich@weber.edu or 801 626 6209
Linda Smith, Repertory Dance Theatre, lynne@rdtutah.org or 801-534-1000
Carrie Maxson, Ogden City Schools, maxsonc@ogdensd.org