Community Asset Mapping for Science Investigations

Background/Summary

Community Asset Mapping is a process of uncovering and highlighting resources within a place, including those found to be relevant to an investigation. This process and the resources created as an outcome of this process are grounded in the belief that all communities have a variety of positive forms of natural, human, social, and constructed capital that can be used in understanding contexts, uncovering needs, and advancing solutions.

Within the context of science teaching and learning, community asset mapping allows students and teachers to connect with their communities, both physical and social, in order to identify resources, engineering design problems, or questions for scientific study.  Mapping can be done through both low and high tech methods, from walking the neighborhood to using ArcGIS.

Community Asset Mapping Activities

• Create a timeline and name the impactful events from different perspectives of the various groups of people that have inhabited this place.
  • Who might not be represented?
  • What information do you use to create your timeline? What information is potentially missing? Who authored the information you are using?
  • How have you bounded your place? Why?
• Create a community map of the area served by your school. Identify physical, cultural, linguistic (e.g., place names, indigenous stories), and human resources that might be incorporated into instruction.
  • Archival maps often show different names for familiar places. 
  • Local library archives often include photographs and drawings depicting the history of local places. 
  • Place names contain clues to historical, cultural, and ecological change.
  • Indigenous place names reveal culturally significant sites and may contain ecological information. 
  • A timeline and/or community map provide a shared knowledge base for participatory curriculum development with colleagues, students, and community members.

The following websites contain procedures for conducting community asset mapping.

• Community Science Participatory Asset Mapping Toolkit
• Peace Corps Community Mapping
• Americorps VISTA Asset Mapping: 10 Steps
• UCLA Health Policy Research Asset Mapping

Questions for Consideration

With respect to using community asset mapping for place-based education in science:

• Who are the key holders of history and/or knowledge of place?
• What cultures are represented in this area?
• What has been really important to the history of people in this place, including current residents?
• What types of resources, questions, or challenges might connect to science practices, crosscutting concepts, or disciplinary core ideas at the desired grade level?
• What has changed in this place over time?