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| One panel of the GIS in Academia and Beyond map features Historically Black Colleges and Universities. |
The Conversation: 6 things to ask yourself before you share a bushfire map on social media - Juan Pablo Guerschman, Senior Research Scientist at CSIRO explains how satellites are used to make maps and provides the six things noted in the title. This Creative Commons article (all articles on the site are CC!) was picked up by many outlets including Fast Company.
Powell Tribune: Review finds waste, errors in county's handling of GIS data - "Within the county government, the assessor’s office, public works department, and planning and zoning department all maintain their own GIS data tables. T-O Engineers found “critical discrepancies” between them. For instance, each data table contains different numbers of acres, parcels of land, miles of road and addresses. One data set is off by about 4 feet, Clarkson said." This is the type of situation a GIS professional might find out in the world. Here's a challenging essay question for a project management type course: If you were to be hired to address this situation, where would you start?
Albequeque Journal: 2018 map reveals NM has no hate groups - The map might serve as a prompt for a discussion or essay question: Should this be a map of counts (number of hate groups per state) or rates (how many hate groups per state population)? Why?
Tom Hammond and Julie Oltman from Lehigh University share slides and resources from a recent presentation titled Geo-computational thinking in the K-12 curriculum. Via Twitter.
Lyzi Diamond: How to help beginners who share work online - I made up the title, but I think it describes the topic of this great thread!
St. Louis Public Radio: How SLU’s Geospatial Institute Is Working On Wildfires - "On Wednesday’s St. Louis on the Air, host Sarah Fenske led a conversation about the difference this research can make. She talked with Ness Sandoval, associate professor of sociology at St. Louis University and an associate director of the Geospatial Institute, and with Shawn Steadman, director of SLU’s emergency management program."
Tom Hammond and Julie Oltman from Lehigh University share slides and resources from a recent presentation titled Geo-computational thinking in the K-12 curriculum. Via Twitter.
Lyzi Diamond: How to help beginners who share work online - I made up the title, but I think it describes the topic of this great thread!
St. Louis Public Radio: How SLU’s Geospatial Institute Is Working On Wildfires - "On Wednesday’s St. Louis on the Air, host Sarah Fenske led a conversation about the difference this research can make. She talked with Ness Sandoval, associate professor of sociology at St. Louis University and an associate director of the Geospatial Institute, and with Shawn Steadman, director of SLU’s emergency management program."
Krstin Eccles: A postdoc at UToronto Mississauga shares material on GitHub for two three-hour lectures on the introduction to R and stats for geography/environmental science. Via Twitter.
Esri (Blog): Announcing the winners of the 2019 StoryMapper of the Year competition - Stanford University Libraries took the top prize; there's lots to learn from all the winners. I love that the new StoryMap builder by default includes the name of the author/organization. Thank you Allen (and team) for listening to me gripe about that for the past few years.
Esri (Blog): Announcing the winners of the 2019 StoryMapper of the Year competition - Stanford University Libraries took the top prize; there's lots to learn from all the winners. I love that the new StoryMap builder by default includes the name of the author/organization. Thank you Allen (and team) for listening to me gripe about that for the past few years.
Education News
Washington Monthly: The Education Master’s Degree Scam - "...teachers with master’s degrees aren’t any better, on average, at educating students." My nephew got a shiny bachelor's degree a few years ago in New York State. He got into a program where he taught in the NYC public schools by day and worked on a master's degree by night. He lasted about two months and threw up his hands. Now he plans to go to business school. Via Audrey Watters.
Nautilus: Why We Love How-to Videos - The author explains the brain science related to learning from videos.
Austin (MN) Daily Herald: Austin School Board approves changes to list of offered courses - "There will also be a change to how students progress through social studies during their time at Austin High School. Under the proposed system, ninth graders would have one semester of World History before having a full year of Human Geography in 10th grade, a full year of U.S. History in their junior year and Intro to US Politics and Government and Economics will round out their senior year." Wow a full year of high school human geography! Great! I only got a quarter of a year, in eighth grade, with Mr. Hughes.
Moultrie (SC) News: Teacher to Parent - Curriculum specialists, take a bow - A parent asks why, under the Common Core, a student must memorize states and capitols. An award winning teacher responds. Do you agree with his argument?
Nautilus: Why We Love How-to Videos - The author explains the brain science related to learning from videos.
Austin (MN) Daily Herald: Austin School Board approves changes to list of offered courses - "There will also be a change to how students progress through social studies during their time at Austin High School. Under the proposed system, ninth graders would have one semester of World History before having a full year of Human Geography in 10th grade, a full year of U.S. History in their junior year and Intro to US Politics and Government and Economics will round out their senior year." Wow a full year of high school human geography! Great! I only got a quarter of a year, in eighth grade, with Mr. Hughes.
Moultrie (SC) News: Teacher to Parent - Curriculum specialists, take a bow - A parent asks why, under the Common Core, a student must memorize states and capitols. An award winning teacher responds. Do you agree with his argument?
KOMO: 'It's a real honor': Seattle's Ken Jennings revels in Jeopardy! win - If you missed it, map nerd Ken Jennings took the win in the recent "Greatest of All Time" competition on the popular TV show. I for one was cheering for Ken. I was very impressed with his Shakespeare knowledge.
On and Off Campus
Auburn: Breakthrough study points to global streams and rivers’ contribution to climate change - "A new study led by Auburn University researchers and published in the journal, Nature Climate Change, shows a four-fold increase in emissions of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide—a major contributor to climate warming—in global streams and rivers."
Programs and Courses
Unity College (ME): Unity College Add Five New Degree Programs to its Distance Education Portfolio - "The three new bachelor’s degrees are in Environmental Geospatial Technologies, Environmental Justice and Social Change, and Marine Biology and Sustainable Aquaculture." Unity advertised on my local NPR station this past week!
Money
OU Awarded a $4.5 Million Grant for Climate Study - "The University of Oklahoma was awarded a $4.5 million grant to apply cutting-edge science, data and tools in preparation for climate extremes such as droughts, floods and heat waves." The funds, from the USGS, will support the science center at the university for five years.
Events
Georgia State Libraries: Data in the ATL: "#DataInTheATL is a speaker series hosted by Georgia State University Library that connects the university with a variety of Atlanta-based professionals, highlighting how data analysis is being used successfully in their daily work while introducing students to potential careers in data science." The upcoming events are Feb 7 and Mar 6 on campus.
USC: 2020 Los Angeles Geospatial Summit - Further details are in this press release published by Directions Magazine. The student fee is $50 for the daylong event.