Education Blog

Teaching topography and topographic maps are important in Earth science and physical geography; it builds a foundation for understanding how the surface of the Earth shapes natural processes, ecosystems, and human activity. For this reason, topography is often taught at the beginning of Earth science and geography courses - in September!

Esri consistently releases new contents, updates, and resources related to their products, solutions, apps, and applications, as well as best practices, success stories, recorded webinars, and more. Although these resources are posted in various locations, they can be difficult to find.

This blog provides a comprehensive list of all the August 2025 technical highlights and resources from Esri. It is a buffet-style list, so feel free to pick and choose the topics that interest you.

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.

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. And share your activity feedback with us.

You are invited to two events focused on ArcGIS Governance in Higher Education - ideal for license administrators, GIS administrators, and Enterprise IT Managers. Learn about best practices for governing ArcGIS and managing lifecycle of content, credit and users.

I'm excited to share a new activity for students - Experience GIS for Wildfire Management. This activity is appropriate for students in fire science classes, as well as those in Emergency and Fire Management Services, Fire Technology and Emergency Services, Public Safety, or Forestry and Natural Resources pathways. 

In most schools, the use of AI is hotly debated and frequently regulated by school district policy.  

With the addition of AI Assistants to the ArcGIS platform, there’s no better time to know how to enable or disable AI Assistants and understand the capacities of the tools.

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.

Save and share maps with a free ArcGIS public account - for teachers and adults only!