Resources for Teaching and Learning
WebMD: We made a map. It's probably wrong - "In the end, though, the shoddy data mean neither the government nor the public have enough visibility into vaccination coverage inside the nation’s hospitals, where surprising pockets of vaccine hesitancy persist."
Public Policy Institute of California: Geography of College Readiness in California - The map reveals "district-level rates vary widely, from less than 20% to more than 80%. Near Sacramento and in major regions along the coast—such as the Bay Area, San Diego, and Los Angeles—A–G completion [courses needed to attend CSU or UC colleges] is relatively high. Throughout the rest of the state, college preparation tends to be much lower. Overall, districts in cities (45%) and suburban (44%) neighborhoods have higher A–G completion rates than those in smaller towns (32%) and rural areas (29%)."
Bella Caledonia: The Benefits of Climate Change? Geography Lessons in Scotland - "The first section and first figure in the textbook in chapter 4 talks of the positive benefits of climate change..."
Boston Globe: Boston’s ‘heat islands’ turn lower-income neighborhoods from hot to insufferable - The Globe tweeted, "As the climate continues to warm up, it’s Boston’s 'heat islands' — primarily concentrated in lower-income neighborhoods throughout the city — that will most acutely feel its effects, including heat-related illnesses."Meanwhile in St. Louis
UMSL Daily: Renamed Geospatial Collaborative working to foster research collaboration to address community needs - The newly renamed Geospatial Collaborative originally launched as the National Security and Community Policy Collaborative. Apparently, the old name was not "geospatial" enough.
FOX 2: National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency takes steps towards permanent telework - This was pretty interesting: "The Federal News Network reported that the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is having some employees do 64 hours of telework per every 80 hour pay period. Some of these adjustments have included NGA utilizing its sign language interpreters to allow its almost 40 deaf employees to work at home."
High School
L'Observateur: High school students work toward GIS certification - "Students in the St. John the Baptist Parish Jump Start Summers 2021 program are working toward a GIS industry-based certification exam that can put them on a pathway to a variety of geospatial technology careers." It's a Global Geospatial Institute program.
Programs and Courses
Kansas.com: Want to learn how to pilot a drone? WSU Tech to launch new Unmanned Aircraft program - "The one- to two-year program, slated to begin in August, will take place at the tech school’s National Center for Aviation Training campus. Called the Unmanned Aircraft Systems program, it will specialize in piloting drones and Geographic Information System, or GIS, capabilities."
Meanwhile in Education
MIT News: MIT and Harvard agree to transfer edX to ed-tech firm 2U - "Two-part transaction would turn edX into a public benefit company while generously funding a nonprofit dedicated to strengthening the impact of digital learning." I can't say I saw that coming, but I do like the idea of EdX as a public benefit company.
(Penn State) People
Penn State: Geographic visualization trailblazer Alan MacEachren to retire - Some interesting history in this article.
Penn State: Online geospatial education faculty member receives mentoring award - I mentioned this before, but it bears mentioning again, especially since Beth King has been a stalwart member of the Penn State program since day one and a longtime reader and contributor to this newsletter.
Esri
Esri: Esri Enters Memorandum of Understanding with Ibn Zohr University - "The agreement enables the university to use Esri solutions in the development of new technologies for monitoring desertification, climate change, sustainable development goal progress, oceanography, mining, architecture, and urbanization."
Esri: Official Statistics Modernization GIS Curriculum - The curriculum includes "hands-on tutorials to help official statistics agencies modernize their population and housing census workflows." Disclosure: It is a project of my team, the Learn ArcGIS team.
Minnesota: U-Spatial Mapping Prize Winners - Have a look at eleven StoryMaps from UMN classes and students.
Esri and NatGeo: Exploring with GIS is a documentary mini-series. The goal: "to tell stories about National Geographic Explorers using GIS to take on the world." There are currently four short (five minutes or less) videos.