Creating and sustaining public engagement in spatial humanities and deep mapping projects

The Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) program serves as a pipeline of activities to inspire and educate a broad audience about Heliophysics and the Sun-Earth system, specifically the Van Allen Radiation Belts. The program is comprised of a variety of formal, informal and public outreach activities that all align with the NASA Education Portfolio Strategic Framework outcomes. These include lesson plans and curriculum for use in the classroom, teacher workshops, internship opportunities, activities that target underserved populations, collaboration with science centers and NASA visitors’ centers and partnerships with experts in the Heliophysics and education disciplines. This paper will detail the activities that make up the RBSP E/PO program, their intended audiences, and an explanation as to how they align with the NASA education outcomes. Additionally, discussions on why these activities are necessary as part of a NASA mission are included. Finally, examples of how the RBSP E/PO team has carried out some of these activities will be discussed throughout.

Scholars in the social sciences and spatial humanities have developed a robust body of scholarship touting the benefits for the public and researchers alike in engaging with mapping projects, especially using public participatory geographical information systems (PPGIS) approaches. Developing robust and sustainable engagement from community stakeholders has been a continual challenge, however. Scholars have promoted many different public outreach activities and programs that work to engage the public in mapping projects. Little work has been done, though, to develop a model that guides researchers on how to create and sustain public engagement in these projects. This article aims to fill this void by developing a sustainable public engagement model for digital mapping projects that integrates selected best practices from a wide range of fields including citizen science, social sciences and spatial humanities, public relations and communications, and public history and interpretation.

This article proposes a potentially fruitful “next step” for transnational American Studies, inviting colleagues around the world to collaborate on Digital Palimpsest Mapping Projects—DPMPs, or “Deep Maps.” “Deep Maps,” curated collaboratively by scholars in multiple locations, would put multilingual digital archives around the globe in conversation with one another, using maps as the gateway. “Deep Maps” could be read as palimpsests, allowing multiple version of events, texts, and phenomena to be written over each other—with each version visible under the layers. “Deep Maps” would bring multilingual perspectives from multiple archival locations together to complicate our understanding of topics that engaged people across the globe. Links to secondary sources and interpretive frameworks introducing the topic of any given “Deep Map” would help tell transnational stories in fresh ways. “Deep Maps” would not replace traditional scholarship; rather, they would present it in new contexts, amplifying its impact. Some examples of “Deep Maps” currently under construction are explored. By requiring collaboration—across borders, languages, nations, continents, and disciplines—Digital Palimpsest Mapping Projects would bring our interdependence—as scholars, as citizens, as human beings—to the foreground and could help us take the field of transnational American Studies in some exciting new directions.

The permeation of the spatial turn into the humanities, and in particular history, has both imbued scholarship and opened up new areas for research. This dissertation examines the conceptual and theoretical implications of advancing the spatial turn in history and evaluating existing approaches such as Historical GIS and ghost mapping as a foundation for deep mapping. The resulting deep map developed in this study utilizes Neogeography and web technology in the form of JavaScript Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to develop a prototype that overcomes many of the limitations that occur when simultaneously integrating multiple sources of data and software functionality, as well as qualitative and quantitative data. These are issues central to humanities scholars as they navigate multi-disciplinary narratological research. The deep map platform is a web application designed to enable a user to explore both spatial and temporal data through function calls made to multiple APIs. The result of these function calls are displayed in the web application dashboard as maps, text, images, photographs and documents. By selecting an event or time frame portrayed on a series of timeline bars, the user initiates the multiple API calls and is enabled to develop a series of spatial stories. The application is tested using a case study based on American western historiography and the work of Frederick Jackson Turner and the New Western history. In particular, the deep map centers on the westward frontier movement in early western Pennsylvania and (then) north western Virginia and discerns a north to south frontier movement that augmented the more commonly accepted meta narrative of an east to west settlement movement. Furthermore, the deep map examines the Martin family who were early settlers in Morgantown, (then Virginia). Through the deep map an examination is made of the Martin family and their slave Littleton who was granted his freedom in approximately 1812. Notably for the times, Littleton’s residency in Monongalia County was the subject of a series of petitions by both Littleton and prominent citizens of Morgantown for him to remain in the county and this at a time in American history when slavery divided the nation. The deep map advances the spatial turn in history by enabling historical events to be explored in the context of their spatial relationships using a methodology situated in applying APIs to the emerging field of deep mapping.

This response to Shelley Fisher Fishkin's “‘Deep Maps’: A Brief for Digital Palimpsest Mapping Projects” explicates the layers of complex interconnected practices that Fishkin’s paradigm of Deep Maps instates. Bishop notes that Fishkin’s trope of palimpsests “depends on a scholarly methodology that privileges the transnational as a structure, a means, and a dynamic site of excavation for intellectual inquiry” and “provides for new forms of collaborative writing and new reading practices” in which scholars, students, and even members of the general public can build geo-archives together. Fishkin’s Deep Maps project, Bishop concludes, foregrounds a construction of place in a “self-reflective placial exercise” that accepts “other national literatures and histories [with] . . . their own ways of understanding and engaging with the transnational.”

KAGYA(SELENE) is the most sophisticated lunar exploration mission in the post-Apollo Era and consists of the main orbiter and two small satellites – the Relay satellite (OKINA) and the VRAD satellite (OUNA). SELENE was successful launched on September 14, 2007 at Tanegashima Space Center of JAXA and it had been in opeartion from December 21, 2007 to October 30, 2008. Then, KAGUYA has been in operation as extended period. KAGUYA data will be used for studying “lunar origin and evolution” and “exploration” of the Moon and will be archived and distributed in PDS-like format with the descriptions of data format and technical information (data format description is planning to be ready by the launch.). In addition with KAGUYA data scientific utilization, JAXA also deployed KAGUYA education and public outreach (EPO) activity to promote space activity to public, especially to next generation. This paper describes the overview of KAGUYA EPO activity and results.

Public outreach and engagement activities can greatly benefit from collaborating with patient partners in planning and execution. Here, we describe and reflect on our experience regarding the organization and delivery of the Public Conference on Cancer, a virtual public event that aimed to exchange knowledge on cancer, cancer lived experiences, and cancer services and support in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The Public Interest Group on Cancer Research, including 12 cancer-affected members, four scientists, as well as a clinician and a research assistant formed the conference organizing team. The team's experiences and reflections and the feedback received after the Conference were used to distill perspectives gained, lessons learned, and opportunities identified. The Public Conference on Cancer was a successful public engagement event. It reached out to the general public, initiated new or strengthened existing connections among stakeholders, disseminated important clinical and social knowledge on cancer, and gave us further ideas and expertise to use in future public outreach activities. We also realized challenges remaining, such as the need to improve accessibility and recruitment, and unique considerations for patient speakers and speakers from special/vulnerable communities. While there are considerations that need to be further elaborated and integrated for widely accessible public engagement activities, partnering with cancer patients and family members in designing and delivering public outreach activities is effective in knowledge dissemination, personal and professional growth, and forming connections with stakeholders.

<div>AbstractBackground:<p>In 1971, the National Cancer Act created a process to recognize the leadership, facilities, and research efforts at cancer centers throughout the United States. Toward this goal, each NCI-designated cancer center defines and describes a catchment area to which they tailor specific scientific and community engagement activities.</p>Methods:<p>The geographically defined catchment areas of 63 NCI-designated comprehensive and clinical cancer centers are collated and presented visually. In addition, the NCI-designated cancer center catchment areas are geographically linked with publicly available data sources to aggregate sociodemographic and epidemiologic characteristics across the NCI Cancer Centers Program.</p>Results:<p>The national map portrays the size, shape, and locations for 63 catchment areas of the 71 NCI-designated cancer centers. The findings illustrate the geographic extent of the NCI Cancer Centers Program during the 50th anniversary of the National Cancer Act.</p>Conclusions:<p>NCI-designated cancer centers occupy a prominent role in the cancer control ecosystem and continue to perform research to address the burden of cancer among their local communities. The strength of the NCI Cancer Centers Program is partly defined by the scope, quality, and impact of community outreach and engagement activities in the catchment areas.</p>Impact:<p>The collation and geographic presentation of the distinct, but complementary, NCI-designated cancer center catchment areas are intended to support future research and community outreach activities among NCI-designated cancer centers.</p><p><i>See related commentary by Vadaparampil and Tiro, p. 952</i></p></div>

In 1971, the National Cancer Act created a process to recognize the leadership, facilities, and research efforts at cancer centers throughout the United States. Toward this goal, each NCI-designated cancer center defines and describes a catchment area to which they tailor specific scientific and community engagement activities. The geographically defined catchment areas of 63 NCI-designated comprehensive and clinical cancer centers are collated and presented visually. In addition, the NCI-designated cancer center catchment areas are geographically linked with publicly available data sources to aggregate sociodemographic and epidemiologic characteristics across the NCI Cancer Centers Program. The national map portrays the size, shape, and locations for 63 catchment areas of the 71 NCI-designated cancer centers. The findings illustrate the geographic extent of the NCI Cancer Centers Program during the 50th anniversary of the National Cancer Act. NCI-designated cancer centers occupy a prominent role in the cancer control ecosystem and continue to perform research to address the burden of cancer among their local communities. The strength of the NCI Cancer Centers Program is partly defined by the scope, quality, and impact of community outreach and engagement activities in the catchment areas. The collation and geographic presentation of the distinct, but complementary, NCI-designated cancer center catchment areas are intended to support future research and community outreach activities among NCI-designated cancer centers. See related commentary by Vadaparampil and Tiro, p. 952.

The purpose of this study was to collect data on outreach, scholarship, and financial assistance programs of community schools of the arts. The National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts, Inc. requires that organizations seeking full institutional membership offer scholarships and financial assistance programs for students. In addition, outreach program offerings are recommended and encouraged by the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts, Inc. A questionnaire was mailed to one-hundred member schools of the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts, Inc. Sixty-four (64%) questionnaires were used in data analysis. The survey instrument was designed to solicit information in the following areas: (1) public and private school outreach programs; (2) early childhood education and day care outreach programs; (3) outreach programs for the handicapped; (4) outreach programs in juvenile detention homes and prisons; (5) ethnic outreach programs; (6) teacher training outreach programs; (7) adult education outreach programs; (8) outreach programs in conjunction with other community agencies; (9) performance programs as community outreach; (10) other outreach programs; (11) general information; and (12) scholarship and financial assistance programs. Results indicated that a majority of schools have outreach offerings in the following areas: adult education programs, performance programs, public and private school programs and early childhood education and day care programs. Of the four areas of instruction--music, dance, drama, and visual arts--music was most frequently offered; piano was the most frequently offered type of music instruction. The data indicated that most schools offer partial scholarships awarded on the bases of financial need and teacher recommendations. Few schools, however, offer special scholarships or financial assistance for the handicapped. Conclusions and recommendations included suggestions that there be ongoing studies of specific outreach, scholarship, and financial assistance program areas; programs in juvenile detention homes and prisons should be increased since offerings in this area have declined, especially during 1983-84.

This chapter shows how generalized or widespread and how patterned is the community outreach role of the contemporary black church. It is stated that community outreach activities are much more widespread than is generally believed, especially in urban areas, and more widespread than it is expected; and that the nature of that outreach activity is different from the community activity of the civil rights era. The most frequent type of community outreach program operated by black churches in the surveys is that designed to strengthen and support families, for black adolescents and service to the elderly. A majority of churches are engaged in community outreach activity. The characteristics of activist churches and senior ministers are described. Moreover, a model for church-based social services is discussed.

Science communication research has tended to focus on the perceptions of the public and has often neglected the views of scientists. This article analyzes public outreach and engagement attitudes and activities of women scientists; it is based on a case study conducted in Switzerland. The survey results found that attitudes toward public outreach and engagement activities are the same among men and women scientists, but that activities are done significantly more often by men scientists than by women scientists. A multivariate analysis showed that there is a gender difference in the level of activities even after the effects of position, age, and faculty are removed. Because public outreach and engagement activities may be due to either scientists’ initiatives or media initiatives, the author analyzed media contacts. The media contact women scientists less often than men scientists—and this independently of position, age, and faculty. When comparing men’s and women’s improvements for public outreach and engagement, this study found significant differences that can be used to tailor incentives for each group of scientists.

Background: Total cancer incidence rates in Connecticut are well above the national average, with disproportionate impact on our underserved and minority communities. As part of the Yale Cancer Center's (YCC) Community Outreach and Engagement activities, we translate population research into programmatic innovations designed to reach and address the needs of Connecticut's at-risk populations. Our recently initiated Yale Cancer Disparities Firewall (Firewall) project aims to strengthen population health through expanded outreach, navigation and health systems change. The project seeks to build a cancer disparities firewall around at-risk populations by addressing patient and system level factors across the cancer care continuum. The programmatic model consists of two primary intervention strategies—outreach and patient navigation—and local health infrastructure fortified by diverse partnerships and programmatic change. Prior to launching, a formative, baseline evaluation was conducted between January and May 2018. Findings from this evaluation are presented alongside proposed programmatic translations. Methodology: The baseline evaluation consisted of three components: 1) a review of existing programmatic data and data collection strategies, 2) analysis of current outreach and education activities and partnerships and 3) completion of seven stakeholder interviews. By triangulating findings across qualitative analyses, the evaluation, conducted by an external evaluator, identified potential facilitators for and barriers to project implementation and success. Findings were synthesized for translation into program activities as well as for pre-/post-implementation dissemination. Results and Translation: Baseline evaluation revealed four challenges to successful implementation: 1) limited input from residents “on the ground,” who might be the target of risk reduction and screening services, 2) presence of multiple levels of navigation and coordination for patients during and after cancer diagnoses, 3) few resources for helping would-be patients “navigate” risk reduction and screening services and 4) problematic race/ethnicity data. Despite these challenges, existing outreach and education activities consisted of 14 events, 1,909 contacts and 25 meetings with partner organizations. To incorporate the findings, our project has: 1) complemented existing community advisory board infrastructure with additional neighborhood-level input, 2) piloted community health navigation to draw new patients into cancer screening and risk reduction interventions and 3) initiated high-level meetings about whether and how collection and use of race/ethnicity data may be improved system-wide. Citation Format: Sakinah C. Suttiratana, Roy Herbst, Denise E. Stevens, Beth A. Jones. Responding to stakeholder needs for cancer screening and prevention: Using formative evaluation to tailor outreach and navigation programming in Connecticut [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eleventh AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2018 Nov 2-5; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(6 Suppl):Abstract nr B096.

A number of decision support systems (DSS) were evaluated prior to commencing public participatory geographic information systems (PPGIS) workshops within a small rural town undergoing rapid development. A paucity of existing information regarding the capabilities of these tools and their utility in supporting various PPGIS applications was noted. In order to improve this situation and to better understand the strengths and limitations of the selected DSS CommunityViz, we monitored and measured its utility in supporting community-based spatial decision-making processes from both a technologist and citizen's perspective. Results indicate that CommunityViz has several strengths; however, the software exhibits some weaknesses in the context of our study. In assessing these results we realized that the utility of such findings could be much enhanced if contained within a structure that enables comparison between various DSS. Thus, a major objective was to develop and apply a DSS Evaluation Matrix (DSSEM) that can be used by PPGIS practitioners and participants to evaluate DSS in various project settings. The application of DSSEM will help formalize evaluations of DSS and encourage dissemination of results. Furthermore, it will assist practitioners, citizens, and agencies to make better choices when selecting DSS for PPGIS applications and provide DSS developers with the appropriate information to improve tool design.

This study aimed to evaluate the Community Involvement Program of St. Mary’s Academy in Barangay 130: A Proposed ThreeYear Development Program. Specifically, the study sought to answer the following questions: (1) the respondents’ assessment on the extent of the Community Involvement Program of St. Mary’s Academy in terms of: Vision-Mission, Goals and Objectives, Fiscal Resources, Community Outreach Activity, and Feedback/Evaluation; (2) the respondents’ perception on the extent of the outreach program of St. Mary’s Academy, Pasay City; (3) the respondents’ perception on the extent of the Community Involvement Program of St. Mary’s Academy in terms of: effectiveness of interaction, extent of participation, sharing of resources, implementation and monitoring; policies, planning, decision-making process, and system of evaluation; and (4) what three-year development program could be proposed. The researcher-made questionnaire was used to gather data from 101 teaching and non-teaching personnel, 39 Grade 12 students and 23 respondents which composed of parents, alumni, and partner community - Barangay 130. Also, some items in the PAASCU Instrument were borrowed and integrated into the research instrument in order to meet the objectives of this research. The data were statistically treated with the use of SPSS Application Software to determine the frequency distribution, percentage, weighted mean, and standard deviation. Based on the findings of the study, it can be summarized that: (1) Teaching and non-teaching personnel-respondents describe the Community Involvement Program of St. Mary’s Academy as much extent in terms of vision and mission, goals and objectives, fiscal resources, Community Outreach Program, and Feedback/Evaluation. (2) Students-respondents are aware and have knowledge of the school’s outreach program/community extension services and they are helped by the school to develop an awareness of pressing social problems such as poverty, injustice, crime, and there is a provision of a budget for community-based and school-based projects. (3) Alumni, parents, and partner community-respondents are aware that the outreach programs are intended to help the poor, disadvantaged and marginalized community. Also, it serves and expect the participation of parents, alumni, and partner community in planning the outreach activities. Based on the conclusion of the study, the researcher proposed a three-year development program to help and consistently monitor, implement, and evaluate the community involvement program of St. Mary’s Academy, Pasay City. Also, to encourage the school community and stakeholders to unite and work together for the good and betterment of the Partner Community – Barangay 130.