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Thursday, May 28, 2015

GIS Education Weekly: AP GIS&T Course, First Community College UAS Exemption, Official QGIS Curriculum

Esri Updates ConnectED Page 
Map from a lesson on Magellan
from Thinking Spatial with GIS

Esri updated the original ConnectED page to one that's clearer and includes more resources. I confess I was nervous about sharing the original version; it was very confusing. Now the main page focuses on two things:

1) free teaching resources including GeoInquiries (new), updated Mapping our World for ArcGIS Online (original content 2002) and updated Thinking Spatially with GIS for ArcGIS Online (original content 2008)

2) getting a free license via a pop-up form

The single introductory video ends with the Esri logo and "Applied Geography."




Sinclair Community College Receives UAS Exemption
The Sinclair National UAS Training and Certification Center has been granted a Section 333 Exemption by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), paving the way for broad educational and commercial unmanned aerial systems (UAS) operations.
The Ohio institution is the first community college in the United States to receive an exemption and expects to pursue others.





College GIS Projects Redefine Poverty

Like many other GIS professors, University of Washington Geography professor Sarah Elwood has her students do real world projects.
...but this quarter is the first time nearly all of the 10 class projects have an inequality or social justice aspect to them. That focus is intentional: Elwood is the co-founder of the Relational Poverty Network, a UW-based international coalition she launched with fellow geography professor Victoria Lawson to reframe how poverty is perceived and researched...





College Board Asks for Help Developing AP Course in GIS&T

Per the AAG, the College Board reached out to The Geography Education National Implementation Project (GENIP) regarding the development for a proposal for a high school advanced placement GIS&T course. The AP Human Geography test is "is one of the most successful and fastest growing," which I guess suggests this one might be popular, too. Other reasons to explore such a course: access to the tech (Esri ConnectED mentioned, but not open source), growth of industry (Google study cited), value of GIS&T in interdisciplinary study and problem solving. I penned some electrons on the matter earlier this week.

There's a small seed grant to entice writers and reviewers to participate. Applications for those roles are due June 15.



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A Process for Keeping Pace with Evolving Web Mapping Technologies

The open access paper is in Cartographic Perspectives. I thought the research was so interesting and important for educators that I wrote about it three years ago. I was pleased to learn Patrick Kennelly from LIU Post is the journal editor. (Is there anything he doesn't do in our field?)



Webinar on Penn State GIS-T Online Offering

I am involved with the Penn State MGIS program so I was surprised to learn an online GIS-T has already been through two iterations, spring 2014 and spring 2015.
This presentation will describe the current state of the GIS-T course, describe results from the second generation of the course, and present plans for future developments in the next course version. In addition, feedback and suggestions for new course content and concepts will be encouraged from webinar attendees.
GIS-T Online Penn State Course: Second Generation Developments and Results
Wed, Jun 10, 2015 10:00 AM - 11:15 AM EDT The webinar is hosted by the Mid-Atlantic Geospatial Transportation Users Group (MAGTUG).



Official Curriculum for QGIS

Phillip Davis, Director at GeoAcademy, reports:
GeoAcademy is now the official curriculum of the QGIS Project.



Quiz for You and Your Students about Authoritative Sources

A member of our education GIS community shared this link to an article titled "Spatial Thinking and the National Science Standards" last week.

Quiz: Is the link authoritative? Why? Why not? Bonus points for the source of the text and its date of publication.



How an Admissions Coach Sees GIS

GoLocalPDX offers College Three by Five: Undergraduate Programs in Geographic Information Science, a lifestyle piece by a college admissions coach. While she accurately describes GIScience, I for one find the description dull and wonder if non-GIS people know how interesting these tasks can be: "Analysts collect, encode, and maintain digital data, they produce maps, design graphics, and tabulate statistical summaries." The piece is part of a series.



Saginaw Valley State University Students Help with Blight Research
[SVSU] researchers have found a connection between a recent drop in Saginaw's violent crime rate and a Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) initiative aimed at eliminating blighted structures from the city.
A press release (and perhaps some other efforts) prompted some earned media about the work of Andrew Miller, SVSU assistant professor of geography and two of his students. Sadly, no maps from the analysis are shared, nor is GIS expanded or explained in either piece.



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