Students from East St. Louis are documenting the culture and history of their hometown, while gaining valuable knowledge and computer skills, by participating in Southern Illinois University Edwardsville's Digital East St. Louis program. Now in its third year, the program continues to incorporate new interactive projects for the students, with the underlying goal of inspiring a love for STEM through creative digital humanities content.

Students from Houghton and CLK schools spent the summer roaming the streets of Calumet and Laurium in the name of scientific research. These students spent the last six weeks as GRACE Program interns. They mapped their surroundings, collected data and learned Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a computer mapping software, to improve their communities.

Michigan's GRACE Project (GIS Resources and Applications for Career Education) helps students use GIS. GRACE uses a coordinated and multi-tiered approach for educators and students alike, and works with communities across the state to identify partners interested in high school student interns with GIS knowledge and skills. Last week, at the Great Lakes Research Center at Michigan Tech, in Houghton, in "copper country" of Michigan's Upper

We had a full house at the Great Lakes Research Center last night to celebrate the GRACE interns, who presented their data collection and analysis about the streets, parks, buildings, and social activity that influence our daily lives in the Keweenaw. We are so proud of their smart questions and polished presentations!