GIS Day is November 20!

GIS Day provides an international forum for users of geographic information systems (GIS) technology to demonstrate real-world applications that are making a difference in our society.

Wednesday, November 20 is the official GIS Day this year, but the Women in Technology Project will be hosting its own GIS celebration event this Saturday, November 16, from 10 AM - 2 PM at Queen Kaahumanu Center in Kahului, Maui. Free and open to the public, the event will feature the National Geographic Giant Traveling Map of the Pacific Ocean, which is a great interactive learning tool for kids. Local GIS professionals will also be exhibiting at the event. Come join us! 

http://www.gisday.com/

Two Important Deadlines!

Esri Education Conference presentation proposals deadline has been extended to Fri Nov 15.

http://www.esri.com/events/educ/call-for-papers

Think about a presentation or a Lightning Talk!

Esri Teachers Teaching Teachers GIS (T3G) Institute application deadline is fixed at Mon Nov 25.

http://esriurl.com/funwithgis149

This is a week of intense PD for people who can boost the impact of the license in your state. Look for educators AND education influencers.

Original post by Charlie Fitzpatrick, Esri Schools Program Manager 

Esri Education GIS Conference – Proposals Due Nov 1

From the Esri Education Team:

Seems crazy to think about next summer when classes have barely started, but believe it or not it’s time to think about presenting at the 2014 Esri Education GIS Conference. The conference, with the theme “Education’s Grand Challenges-GIS Opportunities,” will explore the big issues currently confronting K-12 schools, higher education, and informal education and the relevance of GIS to those challenges.

Details and submission form: http://esriurl.com/EducCFP

Deadline for submissions: November 1, 2013

Suggested Topics

Education’s Grand Challenges

• Impacts of the Common Core and other standards
• The uncertain future of higher education
• Assessment, badging, and alternative credentialing schemes
• Online learning and the object formerly known as “textbook”
• Equitable access and affordability

GIS Opportunities

• Relevance of GIS to new education standards
• GIS massive open online courses (MOOC) and online programs
• What works in teacher professional development
• Successes and challenges in adopting ArcGIS Online
• Assessing core competencies in GIS
• Increasing operational efficiency with GIS

The Esri Education GIS Conference will be July 12-15, 2014 in San Diego, CA.  For more information, see www.esri.com/educ. 

Mapping the Environment: 10 Resources

Esri Education Manager Joseph Kerski and his colleague Tom Baker recently met with environmental educators at the North American Association for Environmental Education annual conference.  Messages there through the Esri exhibit included:

1.  Map your nature center, school campus, or university’s facilities with ArcGIS.  It can make your center or campus run more efficiently, provide a safer environment, and save energy.

2.  Map and analyze your field data with ArcGIS Online.  It is easy to do, and your students can map anything from invasive species to litter to tree species to water quality, and more.  Use smartphones, GPS, probes, or other methods to gather data and locations of that data for easy input to ArcGIS Online.

3.  Analyze local to global environmental phenomena around the world with these same tools.  For example, you can compare population density to ecoregions to determine which ecoregions are most at risk from human impact.

4.  Dig deeper into further analysis with ArcGIS Online for Organizations and ArcGIS Desktop.  For example, you can determine answers to questions such as “how many water wells are within 500 meters of the riparian zone?”

5.  Tap into your K-12 statewide license or your university license for Esri technology.  Your state’s schools, your school district, or your university may already have a license, just waiting for you to use it!

6.   Connect with other educators using geotechnologies, receive training, discover lessons and data, and more, via the Esri GIS in Education Community.

7.  Use Story Maps to communicate your environmental story.  Esri showed this new Story Map for points of interest in the city of Baltimore for the conference attendees field excursions, for example, cityview.baltimorecity.gov/shortlist/, but others exist here on environmetal themes.

8.  Show students how valuable they become as environmental scientists with GIS skills on their toolbelts by investigating some projects that use GIS and by watching some videos.

9.  Access STEM Connections to GIS on the Esri Education Community site, including case studies, activities, maps, links to standards, and more.

10.  For additional connections between environmental education and GIS, access a Spatial Environmental Education article in Earthzine that Kerski authored, that focuses on Teaching and learning about the environment from a spatial framework.

What can you do to teach and learn about the environment with the above resources?

Original post by Esri Education Manager Joseph Kerski 

Earth Science Week October 13-19, 2013!

October 13-19 2013 is Earth Science Week, http://www.earthsciweek.org. "Mapping Our World" is this year's ESW theme, and, again, is a huge opportunity to promote geospatial tech. Before the shutdown, Esri helped folks at NASA create a nice poster http://climate.nasa.gov/esw2013. Esri's resources (including "Mapping Our World") are available at http://edcommunity.esri.com/esw.

Original post by Charlie Fitzpatrick, Esri Schools Program Manager

5 Week Spatial Thinking and Web Mapping Course Begins Soon

Esri Education Manager Joseph Kerski will be teaching "Isn't That Spatial? Analyzing Our World Using Digital Maps and Spatial Thinking," a level 1 mapping course beginning next month and running 5 weeks.  It is entirely online and uses web-based GIS tools, 90% of which are ArcGIS Online. 
 
"Join us for a 5 week immersion in the foundations of thinking spatially and applying the foundations to real-world issues and problem-based learning through skill building in web mapping technologies. Issues addressed include landscape and population change, natural hazards, climate, mapping your own field data, and more."
 
The course includes active discussions, hands-on activities, networking, self-assessments, and the development of your plan to implement these foundations and skills.
 
The course begins on September 25 and is $85. If you have any questions, please contact Carolyn Gardner at carolyngardner@enetcolorado.org or Jane Brown at janebrown@enetcolorado.org.

Course link to sign up: http://www.enetcolorado.org/register-for-courses/isnt-that-spatial-analyzing-our-world-through-digital-maps-and-spatial-thinking-course-level-1-starts-september-25th/.

New Spatial Mathematics Book Published

Esri Education Manager Joseph Kerski has co-authored a new book titled Spatial Mathematics: Theory and Practice through Mapping. Spatial mathematics and analysis, two different approaches to scholarship, yield different results and employ different tools. This book explores both approaches to looking at real world issues that have mathematics as a critical, but often unseen, component. Readers learn the mathematics required to consider the broad problem at hand, rather than learning mathematics according to the determination of a (perhaps) artificial curriculum. This format motivates readers to explore diverse realms in the worlds for geography and mathematics in their interfaces.

A video description of the book is available here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_jzibDi4iQ

 

You can buy the book at http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466505322. Use the code GQM05 when proceeding to checkout for a 20% discount.