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On the map with Stéphanie Paquette

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Stéphanie Paquette, a social studies teacher at Collège Reine-Marie in Montréal, has created GIS resources and activities to inject some energy into the curriculum.

Stéphanie Paquette teaches social studies at Collège Reine-Marie in Montréal. In recent years, she’s taught 8th grade, but for the 2025–2026 school year, she’ll be teaching 7th grade.

The image shows a woman with light beige skin and long, chestnut-blonde hair that falls just below her shoulders. This is a close-up shot. This brown-eyed woman is smiling and looking straight ahead. She is wearing a necklace with a round medallion that appears to be about the size of a quarter. She is wearing a forest-green jacket and a solid black sweater. The photo was taken against a white background.

Stéphanie Paquette, a social studies teacher at Collège Reine-Marie in Montréal

Stéphanie learned about geographic information systems (GIS) during a GIS training session at the Association québécoise pour l’enseignement en univers social (AQEUS) conference in Sherbrooke in the fall of 2023. She then experimented on her own!

What inspired you to use GIS with students?

I was looking for a more dynamic and hands-on way to introduce map reading in geography, particularly in relation to competency 1: understands the organization of a territory. This skill helps students master mapping language and use it to interpret geographical phenomena. I was also inspired by an activity presented during a training session, which involved mapping the origins of clothing—an idea I adapted to meet the curriculum objectives. That’s how the project on the textile industry in 8th-grade geography came about.

I also used GIS in another context: creating an interactive resource on the agricultural landscape of the Sahel. Students were asked to study the resource to identify the landscape’s characteristics and explain challenges related to water management, thereby reinforcing their learning through a visual and interactive analysis of the landscape.

An animated image appears; it is a GIF that loops for a few seconds. A title scrolls across the screen: “The Sahel: A region marked by drought,” accompanied by four maps, all centred on Africa. The first map shows a green polygon crossing Africa horizontally at Senegal’s latitude, with a height approximately equal to the distance from Niger to the southernmost point of Algeria. A white box contains the following text: “The Sahel is a region that stretches across Africa from east to west and lies south of the Sahara Desert. It extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. This region partially covers nine countries: Senegal, The Gambia, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan and Eritrea.” The second map is also accompanied by a box containing the following text: “The Sahara Desert borders the Sahel to the north. It is a vast arid region covering 5,000 km².” The yellowish polygon on the map is roughly the same shape along its southern border as on the first map. However, it extends almost all the way around the northern edge of the African continent, with the exception of nearly all of Morocco, northern Tunisia and the coasts of Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. The third map shows the same polygon as on the first map, with a navy blue outline and a transparent interior. An overlay of the planet’s climate zones is shown across the entire map. On the left, a white box contains a legend. The polygon is described as “The contour of the Sahel”; the different climate zones are listed as follows, along with their identifying colors: white – Polar, lilac – Tundra, mauve – Subarctic, forest green – Humid continental climate, apple green – Humid subtropical climate, turquoise green – Warm and humid temperate climate, grayish forest green – Warm climate with a dry season, mint green – Savanna climate with a dry season, lime green – Humid tropical climate, orange – Semi-desert climate, beige – Desert climate, gray – Mountainous. In a white box on the right are the words: “The climate – The climate of the Sahel is desert and semi-desert (or arid and semi-arid). Rainfall is low and unpredictable, and temperatures are high. This region is therefore vulnerable to drought. Source: Géo à la carte, fascicule milieu à risque, 2e édition, Les Éditions CEC, 2019, page 41 ”. The area covered by the polygon is split evenly along the latitudinal axis, with a semi-desert climate in the southern part and a desert climate in the northern part of the polygon. The fourth map shows the same polygon once again. The legend box contains a description of the polygon and the categories of a minimum annual rainfall layer ranging from 250 cm or less to 2 cm or less. The categories are divided into 14 levels: 250, 160, 140, 120, 100, 80, 60, 40, 20, 10, 8, 6, 4 and 2. The categories are defined by a progression of shades, ranging from a grayish blue, through a greenish blue, to a yellowish green and ending in white at a maximum height of 2 cm. The polygon is entirely in the white zone. On the right, a white box displays the following text: “Rainfall – Rainfall in the Sahel is low and irregular. The climate is characterized by alternating dry and rainy seasons. A drought occurs when rainfall is insufficient. Rainfall is lower in the north than in the south. Total annual rainfall Source: Géo à la carte, fascicule milieu à risque, 2e édition, Les Éditions CEC, 2019, page 41.”

The Sahel: a region plagued by drought

Tell us about the textile industry project you did with your students

The students were initially encouraged to learn about the apparel industry from various resources, including reading materials, news reports and surveys. They were then tasked with collecting data by gathering information about their own clothing. This data was subsequently mapped and displayed using GIS tools, then cross-referenced with other indicators such as the population density or development level of the countries in question.

In the image, text appears in the foreground of a photo and occupies the upper half of the image. It is divided into three blocks, each containing two lines. The first block is a title in a larger font that reads “Students' clothing from Collège Reine-Marie.” The second block is a subtitle; it reads “An analysis of data collected as part of the survey on the clothing consumption habits among students at CRM.” The third block contains the author’s name, Stéphanie Paquette, followed by the date: October 20, 2025. The background image is darkened by a grayish tint, which makes it easier to read white text in the foreground. There are 16 hangers neatly arranged on a white pole that appears to be made of metal. Each hanger holds a piece of clothing: a dress, a sweater, a jacket, a polo shirt, a blazer, etc. From left to right, the clothes are first white, then yellow, orange, and in shades of blue, pink, red and gray. The wall behind is plain white.

Textile Industry Project: Clothing of students from Collège Reine-Marie

The students were then asked to analyze the results in order to reflect on the impact of their own consumption. Finally, they were asked to take a stance on the offshoring of the textile industry and its environmental, economic and social repercussions. The activity concluded with a roundtable assessment, during which the students discussed and compared their viewpoints.

Which parts of the curriculum were covered by this project?

This project enabled students to analyze a regional issue related to industrial areas in geography. Throughout the various stages of the project, several key concepts from the curriculum were discussed, including offshoring, low-wage countries, multinational corporations, concentration and development.

Another objective of the activity was to assess competency 3: construct his/her consciousness of global citizenship  by encouraging students to critically reflect on the economic, social and environmental issues associated with the textile industry and their own consumption.

What teaching methods did you use?

I used a project-based approach and inquiry-based learning, focusing on active research, analysis of actual data and group discussion to develop students’ critical thinking skills and community awareness.

What GIS tools did the students use for this project?

The students were required to complete a survey (ArcGIS Survey123) and review a story (ArcGIS StoryMaps) created by the teacher based on their responses.

What were the students' first impressions, reactions and comments during the project?

The students showed a high level of engagement throughout the project. A number of them told me that this activity had raised their awareness of the social and environmental issues related to the garment industry and had led them to reflect on their own consumption habits. Their exchanges during the roundtable discussion demonstrated a genuine sense of awareness. They also showed me that most of them had fully understood the concepts related to the industrial area.

What other projects would you like the students to work on in the future?

I would like to implement a project on transportation in Montréal with my Grade 7 students. The goal would be to map their daily commutes between home and school while identifying the different types of transportation they use (walking, biking, bus, subway or car).

This project would help students develop competency 1: understands the organization of a territory by having them analyze maps created by the students themselves. It would also provide a practical way to address transportation issues in metropolitan areas, including sustainable mobility, urban congestion and the environmental impact of daily commuting.

What are your hopes for the use of GIS at your school?

  • I would like to create the above-mentioned project.

  • I would like students in Grade 11 to be able to design their own maps and stories using GIS in relation to the content of the Contemporary World course, which would enable them to deepen their understanding of major global issues with the help of mapping tools.

  • I see the potential for interdisciplinary collaboration, particularly with math class, where the use of GIS could enable students to create and analyze various types of graphics and statistical data.

  • There may also be connections with French class: for example, during my roundtable sessions on the textile industry, students’ oral language skills could have been evaluated.

Our thanks to Stéphanie for sharing her story and for the inspiration her project brings us!

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This post was written in French by Arabelle Sauvé and can be viewed here.