Walk and Draw: Digital Cartography as Artistic Practice for K-12 Students

Andrew James Goodling; Erik Fredericks; Sara Jo Alsum-Wassenaar

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Conference: 2024 ASEE North Central Section Conference
Location: Kalamazoo, Michigan
Publication Date: March 22, 2024
Start Date: March 22, 2024
End Date: March 23, 2024
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 10
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--45649
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/45649
Download Count: 13

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Erik Fredericks is an Assistant Professor in the School of Computing at Grand Valley State University. His research focuses on exploring how uncertainty can impact self-adaptive and safety-critical systems at different levels of abstraction and how it can be mitigated by using search-based software engineering techniques. Recently, he has been investigating how generative art can be automatically created via evolutionary computation.

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Sara Jo Alsum-Wassenaar Grand Valley State University

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Abstract

Creative cartography is a domain in which maps can serve as both a visual form and a conceptual strategy for learning and artmaking. One specific exploration of this domain presents interesting opportunities for students to understand their surroundings as field explorers, employing skills of observation, exploration, inquiry, and presentation of visual information. By navigating the walking paths and illustrating their sightings and experiences on a map, students can develop visual perception and spatial awareness. Traditionally, this process involves handing out printed maps and markers to the students who are then led on a guided walk. Although such an approach fosters students’ creativity, problems may arise in terms of lost or crumpled drawings and the limited visual features of the traditional mediums offered. To address these shortcomings, we introduce a digital mapping tool, Walk and Draw, a browser-based application that allows students to follow predetermined walking paths while developing their spatial awareness and documenting their creative process. Walk and Draw equips students with a GPS-guided map that can be used for walks in any location as well as drawing features provided with different types of pens, customized colors, and user-drawn stamps to help them make visual connections, visualize data, and understand spatial relationships in places they visit.

This project was created as a collaborative undergraduate research experience between multiple disciplines, including communications, art education, and computer science, as well as in partnership with a local public K–12 school. Walk and Draw was developed as a browser-based application using the p5js library to enable ease of development and rapid prototyping of ideas. The program itself presents users with a large map of their current area based on a device’s current GPS location and supports both touch- and pen-based drawing. Students can select multiple pen tips and colors and create stamps to record their journey and provide a setting for creative outputs. The aim of using the Walk and Draw application is to enable student creativity, support exposure to their surroundings, and preserve artistic outputs for public exposition. Walk and Draw has been deployed to approximately 50 K–12 students and community members thus far and has received positive feedback.

Citation
Format

Goodling, A. J., & Fredericks, E., & Alsum-Wassenaar, S. J. (2024, March), Walk and Draw: Digital Cartography as Artistic Practice for K-12 Students Paper presented at 2024 ASEE North Central Section Conference, Kalamazoo, Michigan. 10.18260/1-2--45649

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Creative cartography is a domain in which maps can serve as both a visual form and a conceptual strategy for learning and artmaking. One specific exploration of this domain presents interesting opportunities for students to understand their surroundings as field explorers, employing skills of observation, exploration, inquiry, and presentation of visual information. By navigating the walking paths and illustrating their sightings and experiences on a map, students can develop visual perception and spatial awareness. Traditionally, this process involves handing out printed maps and markers to the students who are then led on a guided walk. Although such an approach fosters students’ creativity, problems may arise in terms of lost or crumpled drawings and the limited visual features of the traditional mediums offered. To address these shortcomings, we introduce a digital mapping tool, Walk and Draw, a browser-based application that allows students to follow predetermined walking paths while developing their spatial awareness and documenting their creative process. Walk and Draw equips students with a GPS-guided map that can be used for walks in any location as well as drawing features provided with different types of pens, customized colors, and user-drawn stamps to help them make visual connections, visualize data, and understand spatial relationships in places they visit. 

This project was created as a collaborative undergraduate research experience between multiple disciplines, including communications, art education, and computer science, as well as in partnership with a local public K–12 school. Walk and Draw was developed as a browser-based application using the p5js library to enable ease of development and rapid prototyping of ideas. The program itself presents users with a large map of their current area based on a device’s current GPS location and supports both touch- and pen-based drawing. Students can select multiple pen tips and colors and create stamps to record their journey and provide a setting for creative outputs. The aim of using the Walk and Draw application is to enable student creativity, support exposure to their surroundings, and preserve artistic outputs for public exposition. Walk and Draw has been deployed to approximately 50 K–12 students and community members thus far and has received positive feedback.
AU  - Andrew James Goodling
AU  - Erik Fredericks
AU  - Sara Jo Alsum-Wassenaar
CY  - Kalamazoo, Michigan
DA  - 2024/03/22
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Walk and Draw: Digital Cartography as Artistic Practice for K-12 Students 
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/45649
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--45649
ER  -