Resources for Teaching and Learning
NY Times: Can Removing Highways Fix America’s Cities? - "Highways radically reshaped cities, destroying dense downtown neighborhoods. Now, some cities are starting to take them down."
U ARK: Low-Wage Earners Spent Less Time at Home During Early Pandemic Lockdown - A growing body of research suggests "low-wage earners — a vulnerable group already at greater risk for contracting COVID-19 — could not afford to comply with stay-at-home orders or worked in professions that prohibited working from home."
ABC 4: Treasure App: Your phone’s GPS could lead you to a $50,000 buried prize - "Len Wright created the free Treasure Finders phone app to combine geocaching and an old-fashioned scavenger hunt. ... Full disclosure: this is an all an elaborate marketing campaign to increase foot traffic at local businesses. The app leads you to sponsors that offer discounts and clues to the whereabouts of the big prize."
Mongo Bay: Chocolate giant funds high resolution carbon map to protect forests - A new carbon map developed by the EcoVision Lab at ETH Zurich and financed by Barry Callebaut, the world’s largest chocolate maker.
Sunday Morning: Navigating our reliance on maps - A short piece on the past and future of maps.
Making Maps: DIY Cartography: Three Cool Map Books: People’s Atlas of Detroit, Data Feminism, and When Maps Become the World - Denis Wood reviews three new books. Via @vWMaps.
TES: Why geography teachers need to fight for field trips - "Ofqual's proposal to remove mandatory fieldwork days for the summer 2022 exams must be resisted, says Steve Brace."
CBS News: The debate over the Geographical Center of North America - It's in North Dakota, but at least three towns claim the honor.
Martinsville Bulletin: Patrick Henry Community College's board to try again to come up with a new name - The college was named after Patrick and Henry counties, which were in turn named after Patrick Henry, the first governor of Virginia and a slaveholder.
Live Science: Aboriginal memory technique may work better than Sherlock's 'memory palace' - A small study of 76 medical students suggests that using a "memory palace" and a narrative together is more helpful than just the "memory palace" for remembering information.
Tampa Bay Times: Former health department employee, Rebekah Jones, granted official whistleblower status - "On Friday, the Office of the Inspector General informed Jones that 'the information disclosed does meet the criteria for whistleblower status as described by ... Florida statutes.'"
USA Today: Lego Art World Map set boasts more than 11,000 pieces – the most in a set ever - The Lego GIS folks in my world are very excited! Reports Esri's Kenneth Field on Twitter: "Just had it confirmed that the new #Lego world map is based on the #equalearthprojection. They stretched it a bit to fit the tiles..." The set is $250.
BBC: Rescuers question what3words' use in emergencies - "Mountain rescuers have
questioned the accuracy of using a location app, citing dozens of
examples where the wrong address was given to their teams." I wrote about What3Words a few years ago; this is concerning since 85% of UK emergency services use the app. Via @HowardButler.
On and Off Campus
USM: USM Professor, Students Conduct Examination of Historic Louisiana Cemetery - "A geography professor at The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) Gulf Park in Long Beach and six of his students are engaged in a project collecting information about a historic Louisiana city cemetery, using the latest technology featuring geographic information systems (GIS) and ground penetrating radar (GPR)."
UMN: U Libraries receives $108,000 for Minnesota Landscapes - "The University of Minnesota Libraries received a grant for $108,000 from the State of Minnesota through the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund of the Minnesota Historical Society for a year-long project to examine and describe archival collections related to Minnesota’s environmental history and climate." Via @UMNLib.
CWU: Outdoor Rock Garden at Discovery Hall Now Features an Interactive Map - Central Washington University geological sciences professors Lisa Ely and Chris Mattinson, and a group of eight first-year graduate students developed an online map of the Discovery Hall rock garden this spring.
UMaine Macchias: UMM associate degrees, certificates offered through UMaine Hutchinson Center in Belfast - Through a new partnership, students from midcoast Maine can now earn associate degrees or certificates from the University of Maine at Machias (UMM) at the University of Maine Hutchinson Center in Belfast. Enrollment is now open for programs beginning fall 2021. Five UMM certificate programs also are available through this partnership including Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Advanced Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
Monroe Community College: The college, based in Rochester, NY, has a brand new 3 class (9 credit) GIST microcredential geared towards GIST professionals. It covers in database acquisition, data management, Python for GIS, and web mapping. The first course in the microcredential, Geospatial Data Acquisition and Management, will be offered via Zoom starting Fall 2021.
Sun Sailor: Homeowners learn about the history of discriminatory covenants - "Around 80 Plymouth and Wayzata [MN] homeowners tuned into an online program to learn about the history of discriminatory covenants and how a local community group is working to help residents discharge the covenants from their property deeds."
Spatial Data Management with PostGIS - A free course with 12 videos (5 hours) teaches practical skills for using PostGIS with PostgreSQL, QGIS, GeoPandas, Jupyter notebook.
People
Greeley Tribune: UNC professor wins seventh Fulbright award - University of Northern Colorado's Karen Barton has been a professor in the department of Geography in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at UNC for 17 years. In April, she was awarded the Fulbright Hays Fellowship, funded by Fulbright Hays and the Department of Education, for an upcoming research project in Mexico — her seventh such distinction.
ASU: 4 new directors join ASU’s social sciences division - The new director of the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Sharmistha Bagchi-Sen, joins ASU from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where she served as a professor and the chair of the Department of Geography from 2010 to 2016.
UT Dallas: Regental Professor Recognized for Groundbreaking Geography Research - Dr. Brian Berry, the Lloyd Viel Berkner Regental Professor in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences will receive the 2021 University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) Research Award.
App State: Dr. Baker Perry inspires — and requires — students to reach new heights - This article is about his students
Competitions
Princeton Gerrymandering Project: "The Princeton Gerrymandering Project is pleased to announce the launch of its Great American Map-Off, a contest challenging the public to draw redistricting plans for seven crucial states – Wisconsin, Colorado, Ohio, Illinois, Florida, North Carolina and New York – in anticipation of the 2021 redistricting cycle." Submissions are due June 15.
Esri Community: 2021 ArcGIS Online Competition - Writes my Esri's Charlie Fitzpatrick: "...the 2021 ArcGIS Online Competition for US High Schools and Middle Schools had the most participation in its five-year history, and many students conducted significant research and created interesting story maps. Complete contents from the event are available at the new ArcGIS Online Competition hub site."