NOAA: When to Expect the “Coldest Day of the Year” - "To give you a better idea of the coldest time of year for your area, NCEI has created a 'Coldest Day of the Year' map."UWO: Faculty commencement address: Navigating new maps - "Angela G. Sublwa, geography department chair, delivered the following faculty address at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh’s 2019 midyear commencement ceremony." It's got some nice geographic references!
LINZ: Virtual Field Trip - "Teachers, students, home school parents, join our March 2020 Virtual Field Trip to learn all about the Climate Change Science, Evidence, Data and what you can do as part of the response." The link is to an ArcGIS StoryMap that provides more information. Via Duane Wilkins on LinkedIn.
URISA: Fact Sheet on Geospatial Careers - Feel free to provide URISA with any suggestions you might want to share at info@urisa.org. I already did.Visual Capitalist (blog): Invisible Stars: Mapping America's Rural Light Pollution - This is a detailed exploration of Tim Wallace's map.
Education News
Times Higher Education (THE) (blog): Geography degrees are preparing disadvantaged students for relevant careers - Two geographers challenge Dorling's allegations, which I noted a few weeks back, of geography being a "soft option" for students.
Twitter: This tweet from a high school teacher provokes mixed emotions. I'm happy we are sensitive to student mental health issues; I'm sad we need to be.
Richmond (VA) Times Dispatch: How each schools rezoning option would impact Richmond's North Side - "The Richmond School Board will meet Monday at Ginter Park Elementary School to finalize new boundaries for schools in the North Side, concluding a contentious rezoning process that has consumed the education discussion in the city for much of the year." The article describes all of the options and includes a photo of printed maps, but there's no online access to the actual maps.
CityLab: Why Boulder Designed a City Map Aimed at Kids - This is a follow up on the map I mentioned back in May.
Texas State: NSF grant aims to improve research into factors impacting geographic education - "Michael Solem, professor in the Department of Geography at Texas State University, has received a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to identify factors that may impact K-12 geography education."
Maps for Fun
New Jersey 101.5 FM Radio: Kids, print out your Santa tracking coloring map here - "Every year on Christmas Eve, we go live to Bob Williams in the New Jersey 101.5 Santa Tracking Station. This year, kids can follow along by coloring in where Santa has been spotted on our Santa tracking coloring map."
Twitter: Ryan Miller's Geospatial Semester students are working on projects to support the 2020 Census.
Wesleyan Connection: Students Use GIS Skills to Help Solve Environmental Problems - "Fifteen Wesleyan students who were enrolled in the Introduction to GIS course this fall learned how to apply GIS concepts and skills to solve local problems in environmental sciences." They presented their work to many local project stakeholders.
NC State: UAVs and Christmas Trees: New Research to Help NC - "Researchers at North Carolina State University’s Center for Geospatial Analytics and Christmas Tree Extension will begin work in January on a two-year project in the Blue Ridge Mountains to test techniques for monitoring Christmas trees using drones, otherwise known as unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs."
University of Richmond: University of Richmond Geography Professors Awarded $700K Grant From NASA to Study Environmental Changes in the Amazon - "Stephanie Spera, assistant professor of geography at the University of Richmond, has been awarded more than $700,000 from NASA for a three-year project to study ecosystem changes in the Amazon rainforest. Spera, along with her co-principal investigator David Salisbury, chair of the University of Richmond Department of Geography and the Environment, and collaborators in Peru and Brazil will research how land use change has affected the rainforest and create analytical and educational tools."
The Edwardsville Intelligencer: SIUE’s Cobb joins GeoFutures Advisory Committee - "[Denise] Cobb, who is the provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at SIUE, has been named to the GeoFutures Advisory Committee in St. Louis. Cobb joins leaders from St. Louis’ public and private sectors who have joined a new initiative to bolster the region’s rapidly growing geospatial sector and develop a strategic plan for the future." Edwardsville is just under 30 miles from St. Louis.
KATC Lafayette News - Carencro High School students using their cell phones to track litter - "The students are not only using the technology to learn. They're a part of a much bigger program with Project Front Yard. Three other schools in Lafayette Parish are collecting data. Project Front Yard will then use the data to see how they can prevent these problem areas." This article inludes a bit more context on this program, which I noted last week.
Programs and Courses
USC: Spatial Sciences Institute, University of Southern California - The school posted a new video by WebsEdgeEducation. Via Adam Carnow on LinkedIn.
Technical.ly Philly: Hopeworks Camden is launching a training program for infrastructure jobs - "The nonprofit will partner with Kensington-based civil engineering and land surveying company Rodriguez Consulting on a workforce development program in infrastructure projects using skills such as reading and relaying information from geographic information system (GIS) programs and working at project sites for construction companies or agencies like local water departments." The president and CEO of Rodriguez Consulting is on the board at Widener
Troy: New GIS major preps students for growing career field - "A new academic major at Troy University prepares students for careers in the growing field of Geographic Information Sciences. ...GIS combines elements of the University’s geography and geomatics programs, focusing on analyzing and applying information to maps." That's Troy University in Alabama.
Supporting Students and Studies
Onward to 2020
I'm going to take off the next few weeks off. The next issue of this newsletter will be available on Thursday January 9, 2020. Thanks for reading and for sharing this publication with others who might find it useful.