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AI is a great tool for generating a first draft. Take a picture with Survey123 and let AI provide a first draft of survey answers, from an image description to choosing from a list of answers. Of course, as with most AI-generated content, it’s not a reliable final answer – you’ll want to make sure to review and update the answers as appropriate. See it Watch the survey in action: In this survey, I included the prompt used to answer the question as the hint for the question. That’s not required; I did so here so you could see my prompts as examples. You can fill out the survey from the video above yourself if you have an ArcGIS Online account. Use this survey to take a picture and see the information that is populated in the survey: https://arcg.is/1TbmWW2 NOTE: Using image analysis in Survey123 isn’t available when a survey is filled out by an anonymous user. While all the questions attempt to use the image to generate a value (save the one verifying if you reviewed the answers), they don’t all always populate. AI can be a bit finicky. This is part of why all answers are reviewed before submission. Make one Follow these steps to make a similar survey of your own: Enable analysis tools, including image analysis, for your organization and in Survey123. This must be done by an administrator of your organization. The following settings are required: Turn on "Allow use of AI assistants by members of your organization' in ArcGIS Online organization settings > AI assistants Turn off "Block Esri apps and capabilities while they are in beta" in ArcGIS Online organization settings > Security > Apps Select "Enable analysis tools" in Survey123 Organization settings > Extensions > Analysis tools Create your survey in the web browser, including the image you want analyzed to populate other answers in the survey. For the questions you want to fill out based on the image, add the question and click "Edit" for the calculation. In the "Edit calculation" pane that opens: Set Source to Question Under Extract property from question set Select a question to your image question. Set Select a property to Analyze image. Under What would you like to extract from the image specify the information to pull from the image. See "Writing the image extraction prompt" below for some tips on writing a good prompt for the extraction. Add the other questions for your survey. You can have multiple questions that are populated by analysis of the same image using different prompts. Recommendation: Include a question verifying if the person has reviewed all AI-generated survey answers. Marking that question as required means the survey won’t submit until the person marks that they have reviewed the answers instead of accepting what AI provided as the final answer. Test your survey! Prompts often require a few revisions to get even better results. Writing the image extraction prompt Here are tips for writing the prompt that will be used to pull information from the image: Ask for the specific information you need; be precise and detailed. Don’t ask what the image shows. Instead, ask for the information you need from the image. For example, the example survey used the following prompt to describe the image: Describe the recyclables in the picture. Are any items not recyclable? Of what is recyclable, what materials are there? Is something unique about them? Be specific about the answer format you want. If collecting a count of items shown in the image, have your prompt include that you want a number returned. If populating a single select, specify when each single select choice should be selected. For example, the example survey used the following prompt to determine if the recyclables are indoors or outside: Is the image taken indoors or outdoors? Set the answer to "Indoors" if indoors, otherwise, set it to "Outside" Iterate on your prompt. Put your first prompt and take some test images to see how your survey is filled out. Iterate on the prompt until you are getting closer to the answers you expect. Don’t expect the same answers each time. The same image won’t always result in the same answers with AI. This isn’t something you’ve done wrong but is part of what to expect when working with AI. A warning I often find that populating fields other than a text field based on an image work sporadically. Sometimes uploading the same picture to the survey response a second time gets a number field that was empty after the first time to populate. However, deleting the image clears the fields that were populated based on analysis of it, so other answers will also be recalculated. Some use cases Here are some places analyzing images can be helpful in surveys. This list is by no means complete but is presented as a starting point for generating ideas. Describing what a picture shows to have a written record of it Filling out water quality values by taking a picture of a test strip and the chart for reading it. Analyzing if materials shown are recyclable or not. Reading street signs or other signs.   To learn more, see this Survey123 blog post about the Survey123 analysis tools. ... View more

Esri is participating in the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) annual CareerTech Vision conference in Nashville, Tennessee, from December 9-12, 2025. I can't wait to talk drone mapping, GIS certification, and GIS training resources.  Learn how students increase their skills and hirability by combining drone flight skills with data mapping and analysis. Talk with us about techniques for teaching drone mapping workflows and how to get no-cost software to support it.   If your program includes GIS, learn about the GIS Fundamentals Foundation certification exam. Encourage your students with 150 hours of GIS coursework to consider taking it to prove their skills to potential employers. Interesting in GIS for your classroom, but not sure where to start or how to incorporate it? Come talk to us and get some ideas. Esri has GIS training resources available to you and your students. Come by our booth and explore how maps and GIS can fit into your course, and ultimately prepare your students for the careers and workforce of tomorrow. See you soon in Nashville!     ... View more

GIS Day is only a couple of days away. If you are still looking for ideas for your K-12 classroom, here are some to consider. Do an activity using maps to explore a topic your class is studying. Redistricting and gerrymandering  You can find ready-to-use lessons for Earth Science, Geography, Human Geography, and more subjects in the Classroom activities gallery. (No accounts required.) One relevant activity to explore is Redistricting & gerrymandering. Dive into World Cultures and Geography with brand new National Geographic MapMaker activities. Explore westward expansion, the silk road, geomythology, and more with an interactive StoryMap and guided inquiry activities in MapMaker. Flattening EarthPlay with GIS with younger elementary students using resources in the GIS with Kids collection. Print map coloring pages, explore how to flatten a globe into a map, guess some locations around the world, or explore another of the included StoryMaps. (No accounts required.) Challenge high school students to explore GIS on their own using A student's self-guided exploration of GIS.  This guide includes a quick intro then takes students into making maps, doing analysis, and becoming familiar common GIS tools for projects. (Sections 2-4 require accounts, although many activities in section 2 can be done without them if you don't save your work.) Analysis activity galleryChallenge students with some GIS experience to learn about different types of analysis. See Analysis: An intro for K-12 classrooms for an intro, tutorials, and a first experience using specialized GIS tools. It even has a gallery of activities that use various analysis tools to solve real world problems - students can pick a problem of interest and be walked through how to solve it using GIS. (The tutorials and activities in the gallery require accounts. The introduction and first experience using specialized GIS tools can be completed without them.)    Exploring coding through a GIS lens and pick your ideal destination in Vacation Locations. (No accounts required.) Investigate the world in 2D and 3D with National Geographic MapMaker, an app with maps curated for K-12 classrooms. (No accounts required.) Experience GIS for Urban PlanningExperience GIS for urban planning, wildfire management, or conservation. Read an article or watch a video, try using the GIS yourself, and then optionally create the GIS you explored. (No accounts required to try the GIS. Accounts required for the optional step.) Participate in a GeoProject and get a taste of adding data to a map and seeing that added by others. (No accounts required.) Watch videos of students presenting their GIS work on the main stage at the Esri User Conference. (No accounts required.) In July 2025, students from the Colegio Agustiniano school in Panama demonstrated their remote sensing work. In July 2024, Washington-Liberty High School students answered complex questions in ArcGIS Pro. In July 2023, elementary students introduced the power of National Geographic MapMaker. Note: Some of these suggestions require accounts in ArcGIS Online. Generally, activities that don't require accounts provide the best introduction to GIS. Activities that require accounts are best used with students who have some familiarity with GIS already. What will your class do to celebrate GIS day? ... View more

I'm excited to share a new activity for students - Experience GIS for Conservation. This activity has students read about a real-life conservation GIS use case, answer some questions about what they've read, then use GIS to solve similar problems. No accounts? No problem - They aren't needed Students can get hands-on using GIS for conservation without having an account. The first part of the activity can be completed without one. If the students have accounts, there is more in the activity that they can continue to do. Where does the activity fit in the classroom? Consider incorporating this activity into the following career clusters and pathways in CTE programs: Agriculture, food, and natural resources Energy and natural resources Natural resources systems Environmental service systems Forestry and natural resources Conservation and land management Ecological resource and development Environmental protection STEM Law, public safety, corrections, and security Teaching a higher ed unit on conservation, environmental science, or environmental justice? Your students will also benefit. None of those apply to you? You can still use the activity - we are happy to see more students exposed to GIS. Leave us a comment about how the activity worked for your students. ... View more

I recently worked on a new activity to explore and understand Redistricting and Gerrymandering through maps. The patterns I used might help a teacher make an activity that reinforces a topic for their classroom by incorporating maps. Here are some tips for making your own map activity on a topic for one of your classes:   Keep it about the impact of maps on understanding the topic   Embed maps Provide specific steps to take with embedded maps  Encourage exploration of embedded maps  Provide checks for understanding   Don't ignore other important learning patterns   Let's dive deeper into each of these tips.  1. Keep it about the impact of maps on understanding the topic  My activity is focused on using maps to make redistricting easier to understand. I don't introduce the topic of redistricting from the ground up – I want the introduction to be controlled by each teacher who uses the activity. At the same time, I include enough background information so that students can see the tie between the map and the topic.   Take away: Explain, but keep it brief and map-oriented. Focus on the threads of the topic that maps bring to life.  2. Embed maps  Embedding the maps retains the reader's attention within the activity and increases the percentage who complete the full activity. It is hard to get attention back once you’ve put a reader onto another page. Using an ArcGIS StoryMap, I put all the maps, images, text, and other resources right in the flow of the activity. My reader stays in the activity universe I've created and can progress through on the topic while also interacting with the maps.   Take away: StoryMaps are great containers for map-based activities.  An embedded map in the Redistricting activity 3. Provide specific steps to take with embedded maps   Maps can be unfamiliar and guided exploration initiates engagement by removing insecurities around how to use the map. Give the students the precise, detailed steps to take to use the map to see the connection to the topic. Manipulating the maps themselves gets students hands-on with the topic of study, increasing their engagement and connection to the content. As a bonus, your students also build their skills for working with digital maps while learning about your topic.  Take away: Tell the reader exactly what to do with some maps.   4. Encourage exploration of embedded maps    Focus the student not on what button to push, but on exploring and seeing patterns and questions that you can answer with the help of a map. Ask questions you don't have explicit steps to solve – for example, by applying what they are learning to their own location.   Take away: Encourage exploration with some maps.   5. Provide checks for understanding     Focus the reader on key points by asking questions and reinforcing what the reader should be learning from the maps throughout your StoryMap. Consider numbering the questions throughout your text so that students can turn in answers to them as part of your assignment. Using a different color or style for the font for your questions helps separate the questions from the text and helps students identify that they need to provide a response.  Take-away: Reinforce key points through questions and reflection.   An example of a check from the Redistricting activity   6. Don’t ignore other important learning patterns  Some design choices were made that weren't directly impacted by the use of maps. I used sections and chunks within the activity so that it doesn't have to be completed all at once. Standards and outcomes are included to help teachers see how the material fits into their curriculum.   Take away: Don't forget what you already know about designing a good activity – just add maps.  Sections, including Standards and Outcomes, in the Redistricting activity   Wrap-up What topic are you going to turn into a map-supported activity? Comment and share what you want to make, or what you have made.   ... View more

ArcGIS Online, Esri's browser-based GIS, updated last night. Here are the new features I think educators will be most interested in: StoryMaps management (content page, item checker, & link translated stories) Share maps with a clean, user-focused interface without creating an app Map authoring enhancements (finding layers to add, label placement, & styles) Incorporation of AI to facilitate your mapping work Dashboard data source configuration New layers in ArcGIS Living Atlas   1. StoryMaps management (content page, item checker, & link translated stories) StoryMaps are always popular in education, and now managing your stories is easier. There are improvements for finding your work, checking it is functioning as expected, and providing translated versions. Content page When you view your StoryMaps, you now see, search, filter, and sort all your content at once, including stories, briefings, and collections. Learn more. . Item checker Check the functionality of all your published stories, briefings, templates, and themes for missing links, broken media, or other issues. For example, find maps that aren’t shared with the same audience as the story, or maps that include deleted layers. Learn more. Link translated stories Sometimes you need your content available in multiple languages. Previously, you’d author a separate story for each language and manually link them together. Now you can link translated versions of stories together and StoryMaps will display a language item in the story header. Learn more. 2. Share maps with a clean, user-focused interface without creating an app          In Map Viewer, share your map by “Create custom link” and you’ll provide your map in a simple map viewer, supporting navigation, a legend, and bookmarks. Keep students focused on the content they are exploring and prevent distractions from all the Map Viewer capabilities. Learn more. A map using a custom link 3. Map authoring enhancements (finding layers to add, label placement, & styles) Show what you want in your maps, and with some extra sparkle, making sure the right information is in front of students and catching their attention. When authoring a map, you can use folders and groups to find your layers that you want to add. You can also control if all labels show on the map and how overlapping labels are prioritized (especially useful when you want to know what labels will display as part of an activity). And animated lines and polygons, as well as gradient symbols, make the data in your map sparkle and more engaging. Learn more. My Content folder drop-down Gradient stroke symbols to show warm and cold ocean currents 4. Incorporation of AI to facilitate your mapping work AI assistants are available across ArcGIS to drive productivity and streamline workflows. Learn more. NOTE: Concerns about AI? Visit Trusted AI in ArcGIS. Of note in this release are the following assistants: ArcGIS StoryMaps assistants (beta) ArcGIS StoryMaps assistants help you and your students craft more engaging, accessible, and visually consistent stories through intelligent, context-aware support. The Writing assistant refines your text, the Insights assistant provides metrics to fine-tune your work, the Accessibility assistant reminds you of inclusive be practices, and the Theme assistant generates colors and fonts based on your prompts. Learn more. Survey123 assistant (preview) Instead of starting by dragging and dropping survey questions, let Survey123 assistant generates a starting point from your natural language prompt. It can also translates your surveys into multiple languages. Learn more. Arcade assistant (beta) The Arcade assistant generates expressions from natural language prompts, allowing you to explore coding with a guide. Learn more.   5. Dashboard data source configuration With the Data source panel, you can access and review all the data sources in your dashboard. Now when a layer is updated in a map, you can find and correct the references to the old layer to reference the new one. Learn more. 6. New layers in ArcGIS Living Atlas It's the data that inspires and excites, and with this update there are new, current, ready-to-use datasets to promote conservation. They include global biodiversity and conservation hexagons, marine protected areas from ProtectedSeas, wet bulb globe temperature predictions (encapsulating temperature, humidity, wind, cloud cover, and solar radiation), a global mangrove layer from NASA, and USA impaired waterbodies.   Check out these and all the other updates to ArcGIS Online in the release blog: What's new in ArcGIS Online (October 2025).   ... View more

Earth Science Week is from Oct. 12-18 and focused on energy resources. Power plants serve as a critical part of our energy infrastructure - and are central to this year’s Earth Science Week theme. Explore how power plant fuels are represented within the US and globally in this interactive, digital map included in National Geographic MapMaker. To explore the data as shown in the video above, do the following: Open the map. Click Map layers.  Turn on the "Active Generation by US State" layer, and turn off the "Global Power Plants" layer. Click Legend to see which fuel sources each color in the chart represents. Click on the chart symbols displayed across the US to explore the power plant fuels used in each state. Click Map layers, turn off the "Active Generation by US State" layer, and turn on the "Global Power Plants" layer. Tip: if no power plants are visible, zoom in. Click Legend to see which fuel sources each color on the map represents. Click on the power plants across the world to explore the power they generate, and what that amount of energy can power.  Looking for more Earth Science activities using maps? Explore the Earth Science content in our Activity Gallery. ... View more

If you have students who are curious about GIS, A student's self-guided exploration of GIS provides resources and a pathway for them to get an introduction and start building a foundation.   Ideally, all students should complete step 1 - they should know roughly what GIS is and does, and have used an interactive, digital map. From there, students have the resources they need to learn more. Then can continue with Step 2 and become a creator within GIS, then into Step 3 and perform analysis, or even through Step 4 and have exposure to apps and material useful if they'd like to do their own project including GIS. This guide was originally created with choice time or satisfying individual curiosity in mind, providing a GIS on-ramp for students looking for one. Your feedback is appreciated! Is this something you'd share with students, or do you have suggestions to make it stronger? Email us: schools@esri.com.   ... View more

As the K-12 team here at Esri, we are always looking for ways to make it easier for teachers to engage with GIS. We’ve recently updated our website to improve access to resources and information about bringing GIS to classrooms. You’ll now find: A breakdown of the software and accounts needed for different phases of your GIS journey, including not using an account, to public accounts for adults, and culminating in the ArcGIS for Schools Bundle. (Find it on our Mapping Software for K-12 Instruction page.)   A lesson page with quick links into the Classroom Activities Gallery and right to the subject you are teaching. (Find it on our Find lessons page.) Professional development resources for teachers, starting with GIS fundamentals and optionally progressing into map authoring, data collection, and analysis. (Find it on our Build Your GIS Skills page.) Resources and recommendations for doing spatial projects in the classroom. (Find it on our Empower project-based learning page.) We hope this update helps you find what you need. We'd appreciate any feedback. Email us: schools@esri.com.    ... View more

Redistricting is the process of drawing new congressional district boundaries. States can draw their own congressional districts, often allowing for creative shapes and sizes—and questionable constitutionality. Use the new Redistricting and gerrymandering StoryMap activity, including self-check questions and interactive maps, to explore the geography of redistricting and how districts do (or don't) meet the requirements of being compact, contiguous, and with roughly even populations. The activity explores the relationship between population and district size, looks at examples of how districts were drawn, and explores gerrymandering and the impact political parties can have on district boundaries. How did your state do on defining its district boundaries? And how'd we do on the activity? Let us know what you think, either in the comments or by email to schools@esri.com. ... View more

I'm excited to share a new activity for students - Experience GIS for Wildfire Management. This activity has students watch a short video about a real-life GIS use case in fire science, answer some questions about what they've seen, then use GIS to solve the same problem. No accounts? No problem - They aren't needed Students can get hands-on using GIS for wildfire management without having an account. The first part of the activity can be completed without one. If the students have accounts, there is more in the activity that they than can continue to do. Where does the activity fit in the classroom? Consider incorporating this activity into the following career clusters and pathways in CTE programs: Fire Science Fire Technology and Emergency Services Emergency and Fire Management Services Public Safety  Forestry and Natural Resources Teaching a higher ed unit on fire science or another fire topic? Your students will also benefit. None of those apply to you? You can still use the activity - we are happy to see more students exposed to GIS. Leave us a comment about how the activity worked for your students. ... View more

There is a new guide for managing your ArcGIS organization to help K-12 schools and districts. From setup through the management of an established school resource, the guides have instructions and recommendations for the tasks you’ll face. You’ll find it at https://esriurl.com/k12agoadmin. Guide A – Quick Start Once you get your ArcGIS for Schools Bundle, your first task is to set up your organization. Guide A – Quick Start takes you from the software activation email through setting up your online space and creating secure accounts for your users, maintaining compliance with common student privacy regulations such as COPPA, FERPA, and GDPR. Once you’ve followed this guide, your teachers and students can use ArcGIS Online, web and mobile apps, and data – the most popular components of the ArcGIS for Schools Bundle. Guide B – Organization Management With teachers and students doing amazing work in your ArcGIS organization, it becomes an active space that maintenance helps keep organized. Over the last year, you have seen blog posts with administration tips and tricks. Now they are all available (and kept updated) in Guide B – Organization Management.  This guide describes management processes used by people responsible for maintaining the ArcGIS for Schools Bundle. It takes you through managing ArcGIS Online accounts and items, including when and how to disable and delete accounts, and delete and store items. It enables you to keep your ArcGIS organization orderly as it grows in accounts and items, and ensures the right people have access and the right content is stored. And it provides information about management tools to make your life easier. Feedback appreciated Like any new resource, it was designed to help you. As you use the guide, let us know if there are still places you have questions, or where things are unclear. Just email us – schools@esri.com.   ... View more

Thanks to those of you who joined us for the Education Summit (and User Conference) in San Diego last week for sessions, discussions, and connections. To those of you that couldn't make it (or those that want to revisit it) here are some resources to bring some of the events to you. Access slides and resources from the Ed Summit sessions: https://link.esri.com/educ25/slides See the new features in ArcGIS Online: https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-online/announcements/whats-new-arcgis-online-june-2025 Watch a quick video of UC highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJy9fXAtMy4&list=PL1U1yOIVhnz_CH0k2OzLrbveEuq23TBZV  We always appreciate your feedback! Share in the comments if there was a session you loved, or something we could do better. ... View more

Drones are a popular technology for capturing high-resolution aerial imagery and data about the world around us. Many programs enable students to earn their Part 107 license, preparing them for commercial image-generation. GIS programs can incorporate drones and teach students how to combine the images captured with drones with GIS technology, taking their captures from images to up-to-date information ready to be used in decision making and analysis.   Learning the skills to do professional, accurate spatial data collection with drones prepares your students for careers in fields such as agriculture, construction, and urban planning. Incorporate drones into your GIS program in a handful of steps: Get ready Flight planning Fly and capture data Add the images to your GIS Use the images   Learn more in Incorporate drones into your GIS program. Do you use drones in your GIS program? Share the value they have brought in the comments. ... View more