The Politics of Map-Making: Exploring Geography, Math, and GIS to Understand Gerrymandering

Posted by Philadelphia Education Fund on October 15, 2018

Dr. Rebecca Theobald is an Assistant Research Professor, in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Dr. Theobald will present two (identical) workshops on the topic described below.

The sessions will take place on Tuesday, October 23: one from 9:30 – 11:30 AM; and a second from 4:00 – 6:00 PM.

Both will be held at the Philadelphia Education Fund: 728 Arch St., 7th Floor
All educators are welcome to attend.
There is no fee. However, space is limited and participants MUST preregister.

Registration link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GeographyUpdate

The Politics of Map-Making: Exploring Geography, Math, and GIS to Understand Gerrymandering

Ensuring fair representation in elected bodies – at federal, state, and local levels – is essential to hearing all voices in a community. Gerrymandering (a recurring headline) divides political entities into election districts to give one political party a majority in many districts, while concentrating the voting strength of another party into as few districts as possible.

This interactive workshop will introduce activities to explain the geographic, mathematical, and civic implications of apportionment, redistricting, and gerrymandering. Attendees will participate in spatial analysis to understand the apportionment process, explore mapping methods to understand Congressional districts, and learn geospatial technology tools to incorporate 2010 Census data in a redistricting exercise. The process can then be applied to state or local legislative districts, at a different scale.

Participants will gain knowledge about a new set of resources to discuss redistricting and apportionment from a geographic perspective. All background resources will be available online, at no cost. The Giant Map of Pennsylvania may be borrowed from the Pennsylvania Alliance for Geographic Education.

Additional Information:
Nancy Peter, Director
McKinney Center for STEM Education
Philadelphia Education Fund
npeter@philaedfund.org


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