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Teaching

We are happy to work with instructors to integrate mapping, geography, and GIS into your course. These are some of the topics and formats in which we have collaborated with courses.

Salmonopolis map by Saisha Joshi. Juxtaposes salmon populations, human populations, and labor organizing in the Vancouver and Seattle areas.
Salmonopolis map poster by Saisha Joshi. Multi-week assignment co-developed with Dana Leibsohn for Is this Architecture, Spring 2026.

🕯️ Course consultation and curriculum development

For faculty who wish to introduce a spatial component to a course, but are less familiar with the technologies and geographic concepts. SAL staff will work with you to develop or co-develop spatial thinking or analysis exercises conducive to enhancing class material and skillbuilding goals.

Participatory mapping in Felt during Lisa Armstrong's Community Engagement and Social Change course, Fall 2025
Combined lecture/activity session slides and instructions for a selection of Spring 2026 classes

🧮 Guest lectures

SAL staff will meet with classes, either in the SAL or the course’s regular classroom, to deliver a guest lecture about one of our areas of expertise that is in line with the course goals. We can work with you to tailor a lecture or activity to your course’s subject matter. Examples include:

  • Spatial data collection, using GPS, drones, and/or participatory mapping approaches and technologies
  • Cartography, spatial storytelling, and narrative mapping
  • Spatial analysis and spatial statistics to identify geographic patterns
  • Spatial literacy and spatial thinking
  • Counter-mapping, or mapping that challenges the status quo
  • Using maps to explore and better understand cultural or socioeconomic patterns
Students learning to fly drones at MacLeish Field Station, Fall 2025

🕹️ Labs or activities

SAL staff will meet with classes to facilitate an activity about one of our areas of expertise that is in line with the course goals, along the lines of the above examples of guest lecture foci. We have ran activities varying in scope and duration, ranging from:

  • Single session combined lecture and active learning activities
  • Multiple sessions within a short time period with a guided and then an open-ended exercise
  • Semester-long project including or focused on spatial analysis/spatial thinking, with an introductory session and additional session(s) throughout the semester

🏢 Teaching and collaboration space

Sabin-Reed 104 and Neilson 012D can be reserved for classes and other activities using mapping concepts or spatial software, for one or more sessions or possibly the entire semester. Pending availability, the lab can also be reserved for other classes. To make a reservation, please email us at sal@smith.edu.