West Chicago brings Geography Adventure to Pioneer School

Posted November 14, 2011 10:00 pm

Rosemary Mackey

West Chicago, Illinois: November 15, 2011 - The geography education community celebrates Geography Awareness Week in the United States the third week of November with its theme, "Geography: The Adventure in Your Community". It invites participants to see their communities through a geographic lens, discovering new things about the places where they live.

The City of West Chicago is marking the day in a special way at Pioneer School on Nov. 21.

Vicki Hynes, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) coordinator for the City of West Chicago, and Sally DeFauw, West Chicago City Museum curator, will be presenting "Geography Adventure" to third grade classes at the school.

Students will learn about GIS, geography and maps, and how to pick out landmarks on a map. They will get to test their spatial geographical awareness by looking at various West Chicago aerial views and guessing their locations; and they will learn about what happened on the site of Pioneer School before it was built in 1971.

Established by presidential proclamation in 1987, Geography Awareness Week is an opportunity to build awareness of the importance of geography education for our modern world. The week also highlights GIS (Geographic Information Systems) Day, which has been celebrated around the world since 1998. For more information, visit www.nationalgeographic.com.

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