Happy GIS Day

Happy GIS Day from Women in Technology's GeoTech Hawaii!

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.

The first formal GIS Day took place in 1999. Esri president and co-founder Jack Dangermond credits Ralph Nader with being the person who inspired the creation of GIS Day. He considered GIS Day a good initiative for people to learn about geography and the uses of GIS. He wanted GIS Day to be a grassroots effort and open to everyone to participate. 

Check out http://www.gisday.com/ for events, activities, and resources! 

It's Geography Awareness Week!

Celebrate Geography and The New Age of Exploration this year from November 17th through the 23rd in 2013. Celebrated in conjunction with the National Geographic Society’s 125th Birthday the week's theme focuses on how geography enables us all to be intrepid explorers in our own way. Check out the newly created archive of past Geography Awareness Week materials, a new suite of resources all about Geography as a field and discipline, and even more tips and tools to plan your own GeoWeek celebrations!

Read more about the history and purpose behind Geography Awareness Week. 

Looking for even more resources? Check out the Geography Awareness Week Archive for material dating back all the way to 2000!

Maui Economic Development Board's Women in Technology Project kicked off Geography Awareness Week a little early. They hosted a GIS and Geography celebration event at Queen Kaahumanu Center in Kahului, Hawaii this past Saturday, November 16. Both children and adults had a wonderful time checking out National Geographic's Giant Traveling Map of the Pacific Ocean, doing fun GIS activities, and meeting local geotech professionals. 

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