GIS Education Weekly: When a Librarian Picks Books for Geography Awareness Week

Resources for Teaching and Learning

Number of homeless individuals per 10,000 residents
on one night in January 2018

Business Insider: This map shows how many homeless Americans there are in every state - "As the above map shows, homelessness rates were very high on the West Coast, in the Northeast, and in Hawaii and Alaska."

Esri: World Geography GeoInquiries - The latest batch of 15 minute classroom experiences (built on standards) with ArcGIS Online  are available!

The Conversation: Even the most beautiful maps can be misleading - "When mapping deprivation, using traditional boundaries can distort the data and distract readers from important information."

CARTO: Becoming a Spatial Data Scientist - The free book is part of the the company's marketing efforts; registration required.

Medium: Why Hasn’t Open Source Software Disrupted Esri? - This article from Azavea's Joe Morrison. Via @Atanas.

Medium: Keeping students engaged through the holiday craze - A listing of Google Earth Voyager stories.

What's the Matter with Kids Today?

NBC Bay Area: Henry's Map: San Francisco 9-Year-Old's Experiment Yields Lessons In Geography, Life - A story of a boy making a pin map near the Golden Gate Bridge. It's a nice video and story for Geography Awareness Week but alas appeared on Nov 5 and missed the cutoff.

WECT: Middle school student can draw world map from memory - "Brooks Tunstall, who is in eighth grade at Oak Knoll (Hanover, VA), can draw a fairly accurate map of the world from memory in just 15 minutes. We’re talking all 195 countries without looking at another map for help!"

On and Off Campus

Buffalo: As fall colors blanket WNY, UB class observes trees for national program - "Earth, Environment and Climate Laboratory” is an undergraduate course led by Adam Wilson in the Department of Geography. Students gather an send weekly observations of campus trees to the USA National Phenology Network, a program that invites volunteers, educators and other partners to track the timing of ecological events across the U.S.

Government Technology: From Twitter with Love: GIS Challenge Pushes Creative Mapping - The #30DayMapChallenge is in full swing! Look for those participating on Twitter or your favorite social network. Via long time reader Dave Murray.

CSU Chico: Mapping a Displaced Population - Maps and graphics that "examine the how, why, and where survivors" of the Camp Fire have gone.

Awards

TAMU: Texas A&M Student Veteran Receives Prestigious Department Of Defense Fellowship - "Texas A&M Department of Geography doctoral student and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Luis Martinez received the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship through the U.S. Department of Defense this year. The fellowship will fund his dissertation research in subterranean mapping for three years, with a monthly stipend and full tuition covered. ... Luis Martinez will supervise a team of students from around campus, as they develop technology for mapping dangerous, subterranean environments."

Midland Daily News: SVSU students earn top recognition at regional geography conference - Two Saginaw Valley State University students took home awards from the East Lakes Division of the American Association of Geographers. Samantha Turner, who received a bachelor's degree in biology from SVSU in May 2019, earned first place in the undergraduate poster competition for her poster titled, "Characterization of Cold Air Movement in Apple Orchards using High Resolution Topographic Data. Gabrielle Gittens, an SVSU geography major, won second place in the undergraduate poster competition for her poster, titled "Reconstructing Ancient Landscapes: Pollen as the Key to the Past."

Middlebury: Middlebury Announces Virtue Award Winners - Bill Hegman, GIS specialist and teaching fellow in the Geography Department, was among the Virtue Award winners, an award for faculty and staff who go above and beyond to connect with students.

Geography Awareness Week/GIS Day

The Columbian: Check It Out: Let geography map your reading month - A librarian (not a map or geography one) picks books for GAW.

NJ.com: Map how you already made it yours in exhibits on free NJCU walking tour - "NJCU [New Jersey City University] is facilitating a free walking tour of the surrounding Greenville area Saturday, Nov. 16, that includes guided spins through its "Maps Everywhere" and "Mapping Life" exhibits." This probably should have been part of GAW, but apparently is not.

Certification

LinkedIn: Says Adam McClure, a municipal GIS tech, "In my opinion, one of the best benefits of keeping your #GISP license current is the fact that you have to participate in the industry." I do not disagree. However, that argument might be akin to "if I pay money to join a gym, I'll work out more." It works for some, but not for everyone. Motivation is tricky!

Programs and Courses

Excalibuar: A new faculty to be created? - At York University in Ontario, Canada a recent Senate a motion proposed the merger of the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES) and the Department of Geography to create the Faculty of Urban and Environmental Change.