GeoData News
NICFI: New satellite images to allow anyone, anywhere, to monitor tropical deforestation - Norway's Ministry of Climate and Environment is funding free access to monthly basemaps for the entire central swath of the world free. The data is from Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) and its partners Airbus and Planet.
Resources for Teaching and Learning
Visual Capitalist: Mapped: Mapped: The Top Podcasts on Spotify Across Countries - I found this visualization a bit disturbing. I'm curious what others think.
Spatial Journalism Newsletter: A newsletter like this one, delivered every other week about spatial journalism from Amy Schmitz from SDSU. Via @dianamap.
DistrictBuilder: "How districts are drawn determines who gets elected. DistrictBuilder is a free redistricting tool that empowers the public to draw better maps." Via @mouthofmorrison.
99% Invisible: The Address Book - Roman Mars speaks with Deirdre Mask, author of a book about addresses on this week's podcast about John Snow, Haiti and its lack of addresses in the 2010 earthquake, and What3Words. I never miss this podcast!
2020 DroneCamp Videos: All of the videos from 2020 DroneCamp (hosted by UCANR) are now available on YouTube. Via @GeospatialVa. John Snow Teaching Resources: The Center for Spatial Data Science at the University of Chicago offers teaching resources for illustrating scientific reasoning using the John Snow cholera case. Via @GeoDaCenter.<People
ASU: School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning welcomes four new faculty - "The four new faculty build on the school’s strong foundation of tackling significant environmental and societal issues through cultural geography, human-environmental science, spatial analysis and statistical modeling."
NAU: Dual interest in geography, criminal justice leads NAU student to hands-on research experience - Claire Simchuk a second year NAU student did a GIS project for Cox Communications was to track and analyze the theft of batteries from emergency cable boxes in the Phoenix metro area. Where's Simchuk from? Redlands.
Meanwhile in EducationClass Central: How Online Course Providers Track Learners — Privacy Analysis - The top of the list, with the most ad trackers is Western Governors University. Coursera is number 4.
NatGeo Blog: Update from the National Geographic Society on the 2020-2021 GeoBee - "... we’ve decided to cancel this year’s GeoBee and are taking the opportunity to reimagine what a geography experience for young people could look like altogether." Those who registered for the 2021 event will receive refunds.
COVID-19 Mapping
Honolulu Civil Beat: The Most Comprehensive Hawaii COVID-19 Maps Come From This ‘Data Geek' - "Ryan Ozawa was trying to produce ZIP code maps back when the state was publishing screenshots."Valley News Live: Debates raised on social media after Harvard map shows most North Dakota Counties at highest Risk level for spreading COVID-19 - "When we reached out to the North Dakota Department of Health for comment, they told us that the maps are not an apples to apples comparison."
Programs and Courses
FIU: FIU degree uses big data to help solve global challenges - "The bachelor’s degree in geography, launching fully online spring 2021, primes graduates to provide data and analysis to organizations amid COVID-19, climate change, and within politics."
HSSU: Harris-Stowe State University and National Geospatial-Intelligence sign agreement to develop STEM educators - "Harris-Stowe State University President Dr. Corey S. Bradford Sr. and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Director Vice Adm. Robert Sharp signed an agreement Sept. 21 that allows NGA professionals and HSSU faculty, staff and students to work together to develop the next generation of science, technology, engineering and math educators. The agreement, which was signed in a ceremony at HSSU, lays the foundation for NGA and HSSU to collaborate on course offerings at Harris-Stowe for STEM educators." I was unable to get a direct link to the press release at the HBCU's website. Here's the press release from NGA. Via Robert Kraft.
thinkWhere: thinkWhere Supports GIS Innovation at Scotland’s Rural College - "thinkWhere has delivered a field-to-desk Geographic Information System (GIS) solution for Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC)."
The Better India: ISRO Offers 3 New Online Courses with Certificates For Free: How to Apply - The free courses which run a few weeks, are free, and cover "Geographical Information System, Geocomputation, and Geoweb services, and Remote Sensing and GIS Applications"
EventsKnowledge Representation and GeoHumanities - A program from the Center for Spatial Studies at UCSB includes six more speaker, with the next one on Oct 13. Via @STKO_UCSB.
Esri
A Geographic Look Into the Black Lives Matter Movement: Madison Roser completed the Austin Community College GIS Level 1 Certification program. This is her capstone project, a story.
How close have you been to a volcano? GIS task: The video from @lcgeography (Lurgan College Geography Department) illustrates a task using ArcGIS Online.Draw San Francisco: A story from Esri's Kylie Donia about teaching the ideas behind scale to a kindergartner and third grader.