GIS Day 2023 – Celebrating Creativity
If the back corner of my basement affectionately known as ‘the hobby graveyard’ has taught me anything, it’s that I’ve always wanted to be a creative person. I just have never been able to find a hobby that worked for me. Recently, I realized that one of the reasons I love working in GIS so much is because it allows me to engage with my creative side in a way that all those failed hobbies never could.
Cartography, problem solving, and designing beautiful and engaging apps, are just a few of the ways I flex my creative muscles in my day-to-day work life. There is so much talk these days about STEM jobs vs Creative jobs as if you must choose one over the other. You can have BOTH. We can entice younger generations into GIS and science roles by showing how creative skills can be utilized in these fields.
Embracing the creative nature of GIS is a great way to introduce GIS to new and younger users. GIS that is fun, silly, and low stakes, encourages folks who might otherwise be intimidated by it to engage with GIS.
For GIS Day 2023, I am celebrating GIS creativity by making an Escape Room StoryMap.
Feel free to incorporate this StoryMap into your GIS Day 2023 activities. Feeling inspired to create your own version for GIS Day? I’ve outlined some tips and tools for creating your own in my Learning That Pops: StoryMaps Escape Room blog.
The rule is, if you create your own you HAVE to share it with me by linking it in the comments. Also, feel free to recommend a new hobby for me to get super excited about for about two weeks and then never do again.
Happy GISing Everyone!
