GIS Education Weekly: A Playable Simulation of Segregation, Mapping School Safety in L.A.

via @JoelBSperanza

Resources and Articles

Education is Not Football - I like the graphic and its suggestion about multiple options for educating students. 

Parable of the Polygons - A playable simulation about neighbors and segregation based on game theory. It's spatial and raises some interesting questions.

XKCD: State Word Map - Satire. h/t @cartonerd


Bryan Housel, a software engineer at Mapbox updated the iD editor walkthrough, a tutorial that teaches new iD users to improve OpenStreetMap.

Press Release: The University of the Punjab in Lahore ("the oldest and one of the most famous universities in Pakistan") chose SuperGIS Desktop 10 for geography education.

Scholar Commons (SC): Teachers' Perception of Esri Story Maps as Effective Teaching Tools - A 2014 thesis explores Story Maps as teaching tools. h/t @limnoshane and @allencarroll

TheNextWeb: Facebook is letting Groups create online learning courses – what could possibly go wrong? - "Facebook..is getting into the e-learning game. The social media behemoth is quietly testing a feature that would let anyone running a group to create their own online classes, which would include units and discussions."

The 74: How Safe Are L.A.’s Schools? - The school "climate" map (Google Maps) was built from survey data from teachers and students in LA schools.

Reader's Digest: 30 Geography Facts Everyone Keeps Getting Wrong - Who knew Reader's Digest was still collecting trivia of any sort?

Reuters: Ethiopia cuts off internet after high school exam leaks - Last week Ethiopian high schoolers took exams. Leadership decided cutting connectivity (except for at embassies and international organizations) was the best way to prevent cheating. h/t @danyork

Competitions and Awards

Esri announced the overall winners of its middle and high school ArcGIS Online US School Competition 2017. Thirty one states showed interest in the competition which was announced last fall. The national awardees, state winners, and state awardees, and links to their projects, are on tab #2 of this story map. There's more on the state winners from Minnesota (including the national high school winner) on the state's contest page.

James Madison's Geospatial Semester announced its map competition winners for 2016-17.

Blinn College geography professor Rhonda Reagan received the Mary Beth Booth Award for Outstanding Service by an Extramural Educator from the Texas State University’s Department of Geography. The award honors faculty from outside institutions who exhibit outstanding service and scholarship of teaching and learning in the geography field.

Harris Corporation and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) are "partnering to provide industry training for NGA employees, including skills in industrial practices and procedures which are not available through military or civil education programs. Participants in the Training with Industry (TWI) program spend a year at Harris learning its business practices..."

Programs

Clark State Community College (Ohio) will expand its precision agriculture department by adding a new degree. It will also lay the groundwork for future students by hosting a workshop on the topic for high school teachers.

Are you and a youngster near Pisgah Forest in North Carolina? Check this STEM summer program out:

• The Junior Forester program, for kids 8-12, will offer outdoor experiences 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. every Wednesday from June 14 to Aug. 9. Each week will focus on a different kind of scientist that works in the forest, with participants offered hands-on activities to explore these careers’ importance to natural and cultural heritage.

This year’s topics are: June 14, entomologist; June 21, research forester; June 28, meteorologist; July 5, geospatial analysts; July 12, hydrologist; July 19, herpetologist; July 26, archeologist; Aug. 2, wildlife biologist; Aug. 9, social scientist.

This past Tuesday the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) hosted an educational outreach event with Girls Incorporated of San Antonio. The organization hosted its GEOINT event there all week. (video)

People

San Francisco has named former Pierce County, WA GIS director and later CIO, Linda Gerull to serve as director of the San Francisco Department of Technology and city CIO. There's someone to have on your conference panels!