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Emile St Pierre leads a multidisciplinary public art itinerary project

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Emile St‑Pierre, a science teacher at Lucien‑Pagé high school, shares his and his students’ experience following their multidisciplinary public art itinerary project.

Emile St‑Pierre is a science teacher at École secondaire Lucien‑Pagé of the Centre de services scolaires de Montréal (CSSDM). This public school, located at the junction of Parc-Extension and Villeray, offers several programs tailored to students' interests and ambitions. Emile teaches students in the Actinium program, an enriched program specializing in science and technology.

This a headshot photo, cropped at the person's chest. The person is a Caucasian male adult with short chestnut-blond hair. He has a broad smile. He is wearing a long-sleeved kangaroo sweater; his sweater is black with white patterns on the shoulders and sleeves. He is posing in front of a wooden bookcase in which you can see books that appear to be novels. The books all have labels identifying them, as is the case in public or school libraries.

Emile St‑Pierre, science teacher in the Actinium program at Lucien‑Pagé high school

Emile, what has led you to work on a project using geographic information systems (GIS)?

At first, I had never heard of GIS. During a conversation with a member of [the school's] management team, I was referred to Ms Chantal Déry from Université du Québec en Outaouais to discuss a possible activity linked to the Regroupement des géographes du Québec’s annual congress (link in French only). Some activities were offered as part of GIS Day, and I jumped at the chance. Ms. Arabelle Sauvé then showed me the tools available, and we built the project around the various programs linked to the Québec Education Program.

What was the project? Can you describe what the students had to do?

Grace 8 students from the Actinium program were asked to create a public art itinerary in a city of their choice. Once the city had been selected, they chose 10 works of art covering different aspects of life (e.g. history, local religious communities, mathematics, the environment and architecture). These works were also assessed and evaluated in their arts and crafts classes.

The itinerary was then to be displayed using Map Viewer or ArcGIS StoryMaps, including audio and written descriptions in English and in French. Their map was then used in a tourism-oriented video.

Two students showcase their project, The Sydney Art Itinerary (L'itinéraire d'art de Sydney) (Story Map in French only), through a video in which they portray fictional characters Mia, Jess and Paul as they recount Paul's travels to Sydney.

The Sydney Art Itinerary (L’itinéraire d’art de Sydney) (video in French only) – A project produced by two students in the Actinium program at École secondaire Lucien‑Pagé, (CSSDM)

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

For next year, I'd like to expand the public art itinerary project by creating a bank of itineraries that could be shared on a large scale so that students can learn more about different cultures around the world. I would also like to use the tools provided by the ArcGIS platform to create "geocaching" activities to encourage my students to spend more time outdoors and learn more about their environment.

We thank Emile for telling us about his project, which will surely inspire many others!

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