GIS Ed Weekly: The Spatially Gifted Are Being Overlooked

On and Off Campus 

University of Pittsburgh: Some States May Lack Facilities for Administering COVID-19 Vaccine to Residents - "...the researchers found that more than a third (35%) of U.S. counties have two or fewer of these [potential vaccine providing] facilities and nearly 1 in 10 counties have fewer than one facility per 10,000 residents." This interactive map accompanies the white paper.

University of Minnesota: Closer to Home: Modeling Local Travel’s Effect on COVID Spread - "Raphael Stern, PhD, and Michael Levin, PhD, both scholars in the Center for Transportation Studies and assistant professors of civil, environmental, and geo- engineering in the College of Science and Engineering, enhanced existing computer models of disease spread by adding in high-resolution data on short-distance transportation. The models can better show the effects of local travel and help inform decision-making to address disease spread." Via @USpatial.

 

News-Tribune: Runge program teaches children how to get around without GPS  - "A small group of local children spent part of the first weekend of 2021 learning how to navigate using a map and compass [YouTube video]. They also put their skills to the test Saturday as part of an outdoor course at Runge Nature Center. Austin Lambert is a naturalist at the center and took the children, who ranged in age from 7-12, around the center grounds and showed them how to put a barring into a compass, then follow the barring to a couple of spots on the grounds."

Employment

Hopeworks: New Jersey American Water Named Youth Employer of the Year for Its Partnership With Hopeworks Camden - "New Jersey American Water received the Youth Employer of the Year Award at the National Association of Workforce Development Professionals (NAWDP) Virtual Youth Symposium. New Jersey American Water was nominated for the award by Hopeworks in recognition of its partnership for local youth workforce development and its program with Hopeworks’ Geographic Information Systems (GIS) enterprise."

Money

Penn State: Online educator establishes scholarship for distance learners - "David DiBiase, who has been teaching GIS-related courses at Penn State for decades, established the Founders Scholarship Fund to aid distance learners." Note to Esri colleagues: "First preference is given to individuals within this pool who are employees of Esri, but all students are encouraged to apply." I first noted this scholarship last year. 

Meanwhile in Education

Press release on a GIS "news" website: Predicting student performance during distance education - Sounds like a potentially great article, right? Too bad it's a "content marketing" article for the website Paperap. What is Paperap? "At Paperap.com you will find a wide variety of top-notch essay and term paper samples on any possible topics absolutely for free. Want to add some juice to your work? No problem! Here you will also find the best quotations, synonyms and word definitions to make your research paper well-formatted and your essay highly evaluated." Beware readers!

The Professional Geographer: The Immediate Impact of COVID-19 on Postsecondary Teaching and Learning - This is a real article! An exploration of six institutions on three continents. Conclusion: "... the COVID-19 crisis has revealed preexisting problems and inequalities that will need our collective effort to address, regardless of the pandemic’s trajectory." Open access.

Edutopia: The Spatially Gifted—Our Future Architects and Engineers—Are Being Overlooked - "Though they have the potential to excel in many fields, we’re neglecting a large body of students with a unique set of skills." From what I understand, this is a meta analysis of studies with the most recent data from 1997. Via Marsha Edwards on LinkedIn.

World Economic Forum: These 10 universities are best placed to solve the world’s biggest challenges - "The [Times Higher Education] Impact Rankings highlight actions taken by the world’s higher education institutions to realize the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), thereby contributing to the planet’s economic and social well-being." There's a (non-normalized) map, too.Via @0mgould. From April 2020.

People

Cape News: Mashpee Geography Teacher Receives Distinguished Teacher Award - A Massachusetts educator was nominated by a colleague from Texas. Mashpee Middle-High School teacher Celeste Reynolds uses OpenStreetMap in her teaching.

Steve Ramage on Twitter: "I’ve also compiled the first 100 women in Earth observations list alongside the others. Are you on it or should you be?" Via @Steven_Ramage.

The Aspen Times: Richard Compton remembered for his adventures, environmental work - "'He was a very early adopter of GIS technology and applying it to conservation work,' said Sloan Shoemaker, a former executive director of Wilderness Workshop. ... Shoemaker said [Richard] Compton would create maps that would show roadless areas and then would visit the terrain on foot to “ground truth” that they possessed qualities worthy of wilderness designation or other conservation protections. His early work provided the basis for Wilderness Workshop and other conservation groups’ largely successful fight to protect the Thompson Divide." 

Resources for Teaching and Learning

FiveThirtyEight: The 40 Weirdest (And Best) Charts We Made In This Long, Strange Year - Self-explanatory! Via @KennethField.

AgiraTech: Every Difference Between GIS and CAD That You should Know - Educators who discuss this issue, might assign this article and ask students what if anything they disagree with, and why. This is yet another "content marketing" piece.

Reddit/GIS: What makes a good [GIS] curriulum? - A question from a student with answers from a variety of people. 

Durham University: How our brains help us find misplaced objects - Durham University "researchers found that Vector Trace cells can track how far we’ve travelled and remember where things are, which are added to our memory maps of the places we’ve been, helping us to find objects we’ve misplaced." Via @iMuehlenhaus.

The Guardian: Walk this way: army of hikers will road-test new map of footpaths - A few organizations in the UK are looking for volunteers to walk and/or find paths to promote walking. One is headed by geographer Daniel Raven-Ellison.
 

Gretchen Peterson on LinkedIn: "I'm excited to announce that GIS Cartography 3rd Edition, which was just published a few weeks ago, is now available as an interactive ebook! It's reflowable (adjusts to screen size) and rentable if you want that option. It also has note taking, emoji-ing, read aloud, and interactive linking, all nice additions I think."Says the book's webpage: "This enhanced eBook version is equipped with videos and pop-up explanations to extend the reader's experience on essential cartographic design topics and to make the reading experience more enjoyable and more effective. The 16 videos placed throughout the text will demonstrate some highly complex map design issues to help understand and visualize the task at hand and show how to achieve the best results following the author's instructions. Pop-up explanations of selected concepts are also placed throughout the text to help readers refresh their knowledge and better understand the map design process. All chapters are richly illustrated with color and include practical exercises and questions." 

Ecological Processes: Current and near-term advances in Earth observation for ecological applications -  "Brand new open access scientific journal article from Drs. Susan Ustin (UC Davis) and Elizabeth Middleton (NASA) summarizing the current and near-future of satellite #remotesensing platforms/sensors." Quote from, and via, @nickrsan. 

Programs and Courses

ASU: Explore future careers in geography, GIS and urban planning from the comforts of home - "Arizona State University’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning has launched ...  videos from professionals highlighting the different career paths forged by an education in geography, GIS and urban planning." 

GIS Open Courseware - Courses in several languages, from IHE Delft, are available under CC-BY-NC. "GIS OpenCourseWare comes without support and certificates." Via @mapserving.
 

USGIF: USGIF Assembles Academic Consortium  "USGIF has assembled an Academic Consortium (UAC) to respond to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)’s GEOINT Learning through Academic Programs (GLAP) initiative. The GLAP initiative is a five-million-dollar contract with a period of performance from August 17, 2020 to August 17, 2025." If I understand correctly, the 11 universities with USGIF accreditation make up the UAC and will deliver the courses. 

Esri

Digital Atlas of New Haven - "10+ yrs old. Pretty impressed that any of it still works. Looks like only the self-hosted materials are dead, at this point. I usually give stuff like this 5 years, so this is pretty impressive continuity of service from @ArcGISOnline, I think." Via @mapninja.

Esri: Digital Schools Atlas collection - The collection includes six 3D globe applications. For example, the Digital Atlas of population by country is "An all purpose atlas for class, home and virtual use." These are all authored by Esri UK's Jason Sawle. Via @0mgould.