Resources for Teaching and Learning
California News Times: New Santa Ana | Orange County launches an OC Equity Map to address inequality and resource disparities - "Orange County takes a data-driven approach to address inequality and resource disparities. On July 14, the county announces a new mapping tool to monitor the health and social gaps in Orange County."
BBC: How your driving might reveal early signs of Alzheimer's - "Among the 139 people involved in the study, medical tests had already shown around half of them had very early or 'preclinical' Alzheimer's disease. The other half did not. Analysis of their driving [via GPS tracking] revealed detectable differences between the two groups."
Keep Texas Beautiful: Texas’s First Litter Database Launches - "Keep Texas Beautiful, Black Cat GIS and HARC announce the launch of the first-ever Texas Litter Database, a project funded by The Garver Black Hilyard Family Foundation. Accessible through any smart device or computer, this online tool available at https://txlitter.org/ will enable municipal employees, volunteers and others to better track and analyze litter collected during cleanups."
Fast Company: This map shows the gaps between who is causing climate change and who is suffering from it - Who is behind the map? Kyle Van Houtan, PhD, current president and CEO of Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Florida led the research. It was done when he was the chief scientist of the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California.
University of Birmingham: Geography determines survival for babies born with birth defects across the world - study - "Babies born with birth defects involving the intestinal tract have a one in 20 chance of dying in a high-income country compared to one in five in a middle-income country and two in five in a low-income country"
Good Day NWA: Local Teen Develops App to Study Geography - "...app developer & rising junior Anish Leekkala joins Good Day NWA to talk about a new app designed to help students study geography." The app is called GeoBee and seems to be focused on memorizing things.
Geospatial Revolution: Episode 5 Mapping the Pandemic is now available. Here's the recording of the panel from Tuesday's premiere event.
Opportunities
New GISPs: The results of the latest GISCI GISP exam have been shared with those who took the test. Those with a positive result are posting the good news on LinkedIn. One newly minted GISP asked: "If any seasoned GISPs have any tips or ideas for the newly certified, I'd love to hear your insights!" The single response: "...start work immediately on your recertification coming up in 3 years." I'd suggest that anyone who accumulated the points for the application and the smarts to pass the test, was doing something right before certification. My tip: Keep doing what you were doing!
On and Off Campus
WPI: Interactive Campus Map - Accessibility Improvements - "Recently CampusBird (used for WPI's Interactive Map - maps.wpi.edu) created a Text Only Map to enhance the experience for screen reader users."
Beyond the Museum: Art on Smith's Campus: "This interactive map, produced collaboratively by students and staff at Smith College and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, provides information about the art, its makers and how to visit each piece."
Revelstoke Moutaineer: OC Advanced GIS grad dives deep into data to map shark population growth - Sarah Gravel, a student in Okanagan College’s Advanced GIS Certificate (B.C., Canada) program is using her skills "to understand the effects of climate change on sharks, rays and other fishes, along with developing models for population growth rates among those creatures."
Esri
President's Award: At the User Conference, Jack Dangermond awarded the University of Michigan the President’s Award. Per Esri's Geri Miller, "This is the first time in Esri’s history that a university user is receiving this special recognition. We are all very proud of the work and contributions University of Michigan has done for encouraging innovative GIS use across campus, as well as for their contribution of lessons learned and best practices, which have served the broader Education community." Video, blog post.
Esri User Conference Plenaries: The two days worth of presentations and conversations, from Esri and invited guests, are divided up into 25 videos. You can go directly to the product, topic or person of interest.
Esri Innovation Program (EIP) - Explore projects from the 2021 EIP Students of the Year, chosen for their demonstrated knowledge and understanding of GIS via a story. I believe this is the U.S. version of the international program, who winners were noted last week.
Spatial Thinking Student Competition Finalists: The contest was sponsored by the International Statistics Institute and Esri. The winning stories are published in a collection. (Still working on your Esri vocabulary? I am too: "An ArcGIS StoryMaps collection is a group of stories, apps, and files that you can share or present as a cohesive, navigable set of items." Via Linda Peters, Esri's manager for Official Statistics, who works "with National Statistical Offices across the globe to apply geographic methods and analysis to census and statistical activities."