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Thursday, August 17, 2017

GIS Education Weekly: Learning from the Eclipse

Map My Waahi
Articles

Press release: More Than 4000 Students Participate to Virtual Field Trip - Map My Waahi, viewed by more than 4000 students, was the first of three virtual field trips to be sponsored by the Ministry of Education, led by LINZ in partnership with the Department of Conservation and presented by Core Education.

Press release: MapD to Collaborate with the Center for Geographic Analysis at Harvard University to Accelerate Research with GPUsMapD Technologies announced a collaboration with the Center for Geographic Analysis at Harvard University (CGA) to bring the power of GPUs to geospatial analytics.

Resources

New York Times: Confederate Monuments Are Coming Down Across the Country. Here’s a List. - Actually, there's a map and a list and text and images.

1A (from NPR): A Monumental Problem -  The AAG president was among the guests.

Making Spatial Decisions Using ArcGIS Pro: A Workbook, a new book from Esri, teaches how to use geospatial analysis tools in Esri’s ArcGIS Pro software to solve real-world problems in fields such as emergency management, law enforcement, urban development, and renewable energy.

Programs and Department Names

Monroe Community College is offering a certificate in geospatial information science and technology.

California State University Fullerton's Geography department has been renamed to Geography and the Environment.
Eclipse

Kansas City Star: Those maps of eclipse’s path? ‘Wrong,’ experts say — off by up to a half-mile at edge - "...Yeah, all the maps are wrong,” says Mike Kentrianakis, the solar eclipse project manager for the American Astronomical Society, who routinely consults with NASA.

Capitol Public Radio: Folsom High School Students To Launch Eclipse Balloon - Students from Folsom High School in California will launch a helium-filled balloon into the path of Monday's solar eclipse. The high-altitude balloon will have GPS and four cameras to record video of the flight, the eclipse shadow and the sun. The data will be captured in Oregon.

SFGgate: The race to create the most ridiculous eclipse map is on - Cartography at its silliest?

Scientific American: Coming Soon? A Solar Eclipse Near You - SA offers an interactive map to find the next solar spectacular in countries around the world.

Contests

Esri announced the 2017-2018 Esri School Teacher Video Challenge. K-12 teachers are invited to submit short videos about their use of GIS in the classroom. One winner each month will work with Esri to produce a formal video about the project and receive a $500 prize.

USGIF has partnered with NVIDIA to offer an essay challenge to individuals attending and/or working at one of USGIF’s 14 accredited universities. Three challenge winners will be selected to receive two NVIDIA Titan Xp graphics processing units (GPUs) each. Deadline: Sept 30.

FOSS4G 2017 Boston

I thoroughly enjoyed a few hours at the FOSS4G social on Tuesday night at the MIT Sailing Pavilion. (Thanks to my friends at AppGeo for the invitation!) Some of the conversations I had:
  • Met an actual reader of this newsletter from Clark University! Very cool!
  • Request for resources (video series, or use of that video series in a MOOC) that introduces students (intro or in one year certificate programs) to the variety of areas in which GIS is used. (This sounds to me like something Geo for All or the GeoTech Center might organize?)
  • Suggestion that students learn more spatial SQL since it works on so many platforms. (Do you teach it in your courses?)
  • NatGeo staffer noted that they want to hire individuals with design/viz, journalism and geo skills. They have a hard time find individuals with two of the three.
  • Federal money for research is getting tighter and tighter due to cuts made by the current administration.
  • An updated Geo for All web presence is in the works. Preview
  • Several folks said they were already signed up for the Esri Cartography. MOOC.

Quote of the Week

Joshua S Campbell‏ (@disruptivegeo) notes
As #jsgeo shows, unemployment in the geo programming space is running at about -20%. Developer talent is highly sought after. #gistribe
Puzzling Quote of the Week

From Troy Lambert writing at GIS User:
One of the reasons for this move is that Open Source GIS is much more useful to cyclists, mountain bikers, and hikers. Google Maps and other navigation mapping is motor vehicle and roadway focused, areas these groups are often not interested in.