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Thursday, July 8, 2021

GIS Ed Weekly: Which colleges will require vaccines this fall?

Meanwhile in Education 

The Chronicle of Higher Education
Here’s a List of Colleges That Will Require Students or Employees to Be Vaccinated Against Covid-19 - At right I've posted "a map showing the locations of colleges that are requiring vaccines of at least some students or employees. The states are color-coded based on how each voted in the 2020 presidential election." (Registration required.) Via @theAAG and SamR, who notes the single college in Iowa with the requirement, his school, Grinnell.

On and Off Campus

USC: Environmental Studies teaching fellow wins Scripps-Rady competition for fighting plastic pollution - Julie Hopper participated "in the Scripps-Rady Ocean Plastic Pollution Challenge, a six-month accelerator program and competition that helps find solutions to plastic pollution along the San Diego-area coast. ... Hopper was part of the competition’s winning team, whose proposal was chosen by a panel of judges as the most likely to have a significant real-world impact on the plastics problem." They communicated via an ArcGIS StoryMap visualizing San Diego-area plastic pollution.

University of Barcelona: Schools in Barcelona create a map of the city's air pollution thanks to citizen science - "A study led by UB researchers and carried out together with more than 1,650 students and their family members from 18 educational centres in Barcelona shows that citizen science is a valid approach able for doing high quality science, and in this case, able to provide nitrogen dioxide values with an unprecedented resolution and to assess the impact of the pollution in the health of their inhabitants."
 
Events

Geospatial Revolution: The premiere of the Geospatial Revolution, Episode 5, "Mapping the Pandemic" will be a one hour Facebook live event Tuesday July 13th at 7:30pm ET. There's a panel that includes Esri's chief medical officer.

People
 
Western New Mexico: Senior Applies GIS Knowledge With Local Nonprofit - WNMU senior Nichole Bouvet has a minor in GIS. This summer she's working on an "internship and senior practicum with the Silver City Watershed Keepers .... She started doing data collection in Pinos Altos Creek, San Vicente Creek and Silva Creek."
 
ASU: Etching an impact on ASU geography - Influential cartographer Barbara Trapido-Lurie retires after 34 years.
 
Resources for Teaching and Learning

Boothbay Register: Story Map writing class at Hidden Valley Nature Center - "Instructor Andrea Lani will lead participants through the process of Story Mapping. Story maps are illustrated maps that show the route traveled, interesting features encountered along the way, like cool trees or beaver ponds, and events that occur during the journey, such as a bird landing on a branch or a turtle crossing the trail." Interesting!

The Sun: Seven in 10 millennials CAN read a map despite stereotype of them being clueless without technology, study finds -  As part of National Map Reading Week (5-11 July), the study of 2000 adults, commissioned by Ordnance Survey, revealed that seven of ten people state they can confidently read a map. Five of ten state they can use a compass. If we tested them, do you think you'd find these same results?

Programs and Courses

Oregon Tech: Geomatics program receives national professional education award; $10,000 prize - "Oregon Tech’s Geomatics program has received a 2021 NCEES Surveying Education Award from the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES). The award is a measure of a program’s success in inspiring its graduates to achieve their highest educational and professional aspirations."

The Fresno Bee: This California university wants the Cal Poly designation. Here’s what has to happen first - "California currently has two polytechnic universities — one in San Luis Obispo and one in Pomona. Located in the redwoods along the North Coast, Humboldt State would be the first polytechnic university in Northern California if it receives that designation. Polytechnic universities are known for their hands-on learning approach, as well as their focus on STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics."

NSCC: Geographic Innovation Centre Opens at NSCC Annapolis Valley Campus - "Premier Iain Rankin joined Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) President Don Bureaux today, July 6, to unveil the $9 million addition of a Residence and Innovation Centre at the Centre of Geographic Sciences (COGS) in the Annapolis Valley."

Meanwhile in our Industry

CNBC: Satellite imagery company Planet Labs is going public, backed by Google, BlackRock and Marc Benioff - "Planet joins a trend of space companies going public through SPAC deals, with Virgin Galactic the first of the recent generation in 2019."

Esri

ArcGIS Blog: How to make a map: A short course in cartography from Learn ArcGIS - My Learn ArcGIS team colleague Heather Smith writes that this is "a self-guided course in cartography. It’s a curated set of resources—including lessons, videos, and articles—that can help you improve your maps and communicate more effectively with spatial data."

Esri Community: Esri Young Scholars Award program - The program recognizes the exemplary work of current undergraduate and graduate students majoring in geospatial science disciplines at international universities. This post reviews the 2021 winners via slideshow and StoryMap. Via Joseph Kerski.