As of January 1, 2018, stewardship of Hive Chicago will transition from Mozilla to a new local non-profit, the Chicago Learning Exchange (CLX). Hive Chicago will have a temporary home at the Chicago Community Trust until the transition to CLX is complete. The Hive is still the Hive. Read more here.

Hive Mapping Cooperative

Tools to facilitate collaborative youth-led inquiry

Building off a 2014 Spark-level grant, the Hive Mapping Cooperative (HMC) is developing shared systems for teens to collect, analyze, visualize, and share georeferenced data using free and open source tools for mobile data collection, data visualization, and digital mapping. With these tools, we aim to enhance cross-program, teen-driven inquiry into human ecology and urban ecosystems.

In Spring 2015, HMC will convene biweekly meetings with core partners to review challenges and successes from summer 2014 HMC pilots and identify additional challenges and opportunities. Developers, educators, and teens will co-design a streamlined suite of collaborative data collection and visualization tools, and clear workflows for summer teen program participants and educators. HMC will launch prototype systems in 2015 summer programs, evaluating and modifying technological and curricular aspects of the project during and between program cycles through April 2016. Core concepts will be documented with recognition that digital tools will evolve over time. A workshop for ASM instructors in January 2016 will explore integration across content areas.

HMC seeks to utilize data collection, visualization, and sharing technologies to increase meaningful collaborative youth-driven inquiry across programs. Teens will create and collaborate within and across programs in an open, peer-supported network to produce and refine research protocols, visualizations and maps. Partners already convene cross-program youth meetups throughout the year for teens to connect, learn about each others programs, and identify areas of shared purpose. However, those shared programmatic connections rarely continue beyond in-person meetings; digital tools and systems to be utilized have the potential to maintain those relationships through regular contributions to other teens’ projects.

Through this project, teens will have access to flexible digital technologies and a networked system to develop, share, and contribute to inquiry projects across programs. With open access to teen-designed research protocols and data, there is the potential for youth to inspire and be inspired by their peers following divergent paths of inquiry, and enlist peers in collecting/interpreting data and developing narratives around locally-relevant issues and topics.

The tools and systems used by HMC will be open to any teen interested in issues or questions that have spatio-temporal components and could be used by youth pursuing either interest-driven pathways or as a part of a formal program. Chicago teens and program providers will have an accessible suite of digital tools to collect media-rich spatial data, generate dynamic maps and visualization, and collaborate across programs on youth-led inquiry and narratives.

Lead Organization:
Chicago Academy of Sciences and its Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

Partner Organizations:
Adler Planetarium (Zooniverse) , After School Matters , Mozilla Science Lab , Smart Chicago , Sweet Water Foundation , The Student Conservation Association

Project Goal:
Develop shared systems for teens to collect, analyze, visualize, and share georeferenced data using free and open source tools for mobile data collection, data visualization, and digital mapping. With these tools, we aim to enhance cross-program, teen-driven inquiry into human ecology and urban ecosystems.

Outcome 1 - Increase teen comfort level, interest, and proficiency in using digital technologies for data collection, visualization, and sharing
Measure A: HMC program youth self-report increases in surveys and reflections.
Measure B: At least 85% of HMC program youth utilize digital technologies to participate in data collection, visualization, and sharing

Outcome 2 - Youth collaborate across programs on issues and topics of shared interest
Measure A: Participants contribute data and/or feedback to least one other youth-driven project outside their program
Measure B: 80% of HMC teens will participate in at least two in-person cross program meetups

Outcome 3 - A streamlined suite of collaborative data collection, visualization, and data sharing tools with best practices for implementation in teen programs
Measure A: An open platform for data collection, visualization, and collaboration is available to non-HMC partners and youth.
Measure B: Partners openly document and share developed workflows (“user guides”) for teen program participants and facilitators on integration of identified digital technologies

Project Tags:
2015 Round 1 RFP, Ultimate Onramps

Project Portfolio

  • documentation

    HMC website (in development)

    We’re still finalizing and adding to our project website, but please feel free to explore. We’ve created the website to have more details about the project, outcomes, student artifacts, digital tools, various user guides, and other outputs.

  • documentation

    Hive Mapping Cooperative 2014

    Portfolio page for the 2014 Hive Mapping Cooperative pilot project

  • documentation

    Follow Along!

    Link to a public Google Drive folder with meeting notes, work plan, and other documentation

  • sample works

    Nature Museum TEENS 2015 Summer Projects

    This site contains all of the project websites created by participants in the Nature Museum’s TEENS summer program. The 25 teens in the program developed their own investigations focused on a wide range of urban environmental and ecological topics, and their project pages include their research question, methods, and results. These projects were developed during the final 3 weeks of the 6 week program and all of the content on their project websites (and the websites) was generated by the teens. Participants used EpiCollect+ Beta to create data collection forms, CartoDB to make maps, and Google Spreadsheets to create graphs and charts. Data collection, photos and videos were collected using Nexus 7 tablets.

  • documentation

    Presentation from NAAEE Conference (Oct. 2015)

    Presentation about HMC from the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) annual conference in San Diego, Oct. 4, 2015. Provides an overview of the project goals, inspiration, digital tools used, results and next steps. Use cases and artifacts focus primarily on how the project has played out in Nature Museum TEENS program.

  • tools

    Google Drive photos metadata scraper (Google Sheets add-on)

    This free add-on developed for HMC by Adler Planetarium/Zooniverse developer Sarah Allen will pull relevant photo metadata (photo location, time, date, etc.) from your photos on google drive with just a couple clicks. The data goes into google sheets and also automatically creates a CartoDB info window for each photo. Try it out and let us know what you think. You can also find the code on github if you want to contribute to the further development of this tool.