Partnering with LaGuardia Community College to Explore Civic Tech, Storytelling, and Systems Thinking

At SWARM, we believe that public technology should be built with—and for—the people it serves. That means more than writing code or shipping platforms. It means nurturing ecosystems where learning, experimentation, and civic purpose can thrive side by side.

This spring, we had the chance to partner with LaGuardia Community College for a hands-on, pre-hackathon workshop designed to introduce students to open NASA datasets, spatial storytelling, and the power of public data as a tool for impact.

Led by a cross-functional team from SWARM and our extended civic-tech network, the session walked students through:

  • How to locate and work with open government datasets (including tools from the NASA OpenSpace Project)
  • Approaches to storytelling and visual design when working with space and environmental data
  • Real examples of data being used to inform policy, organize communities, or shape climate narratives
  • Early ideas for using data as a launchpad for mission-driven products or services

This wasn’t a lecture. It was an experiment in what civic learning can look like when tech, pedagogy, and public purpose converge.

Why It Matters:

Too often, community college students are shut out of cutting-edge conversations around tech and innovation. But they shouldn’t be. Many are already navigating complex systems in their daily lives—and they bring lived experience that the civic tech world needs more of.

Our goal was simple: Give students a sense of agency around data, context for how these tools get used in the real world, and inspiration to bring their own stories and insights to the table.

What’s Next:

We’ll be publishing the full workshop as an open education resource—complete with slides, tools, and recording—so other educators and civic groups can remix and reuse it.

And this is just the beginning. We’ll be hosting more events in 2025 leading up to the NASA International Space Apps Hackathon in October.

If your organization is interested in partnering on education-to-impact programs like this, we’d love to talk.

Stay tuned for the full OER drop.