Fun with GIS 315: The 2023 ArcGIS Online Competition for US Schools
The 2023 ArcGIS Online Competition for US High School and Middle School Students is underway! It's a chance for students in grades 9-12 ("HS") and 4-8 ("MS") to explore, analyze, and present about a topic of their choice inside the bounds of their state. Their resources are maps, data, curiosity, and the power of the geographic approach.
HS and MS students with a login to an ArcGIS Online Organization -- which Esri offers at no cost to schools and clubs -- can choose their own topic for investigation. Over the years, we have seen analyses of community art, invasive pests, housing patterns, environmental hazards, natural wonders, historic events, transportation proposals … and an endless array of topics important in the lives and minds of young learners.
Schools play a central role, building life-empowering skills in mapping technologies, data analysis, critical thinking, and effective communication. But, no matter how big, a school can advance to the state level only five entries, so some schools take their role with utmost gravity, and rightly celebrate their stars, and in fact all participants, even at just this first level. States, in turn, gather these best entries, award five HS and five MS prizes, and send all the data to Esri for national attention. The most thoughtful states also celebrate these 5+5 awardees, not solely their one HS and one MS nominees for the final national prize, for all awardees have demonstrated powerful capacity to serve their future, their community, and the planet.
At the final level, with entries winnowed to only the bests, it is holistic expertise that wins the day. Maps are powerful models, and the best are interactive instruments for exploration, discovery, and analysis. Stories need to be crisp, and imagery pared to only the essential. Conclusions need to be clear, built with geographic analysis, and supported with careful documentation. No single element alone can win the day; it is the integration of skills, data, and perspectives that characterizes the geographic approach. For these reasons, the national winners are models of how high school and middle school students can meet the challenges of the future.
See the Competition at https://esriurl.com/agoschoolcomp. Help the learners in your life build their capacity in the science of where.
