GeoMentors Blog - Page 2

Unsure of how to get started in helping a school use the freely available ArcGIS software? The great Esri folks who created the Teach with GIS Guides have now also created a Teach with GIS Implementation Guide for GeoMentors!  Check it out for practical advice on getting started working with a K-12 school to use GIS.

Each month we feature GeoMentor volunteers to showcase the wonderful talent available in our community to assist K-12 schools.

Read our full collection of GeoMentor spotlights online. Want to be featured? Information is available on our program website.

Name: Michael Timm

Position/Job and Affiliation: Milwaukee Water Stories Program Manager for the nonprofit Reflo Sustainable Water Solutions

What was your favorite class in K-12? Calculus with Mr. Glyzewski.

How did you first learn about and/or use GIS? Coming out of grad school at the UW-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences, I was briefly involved in a project that was to map green infrastructure opportunities across the City of Milwaukee. This project led to connecting with Reflo, where my role is to curate the Milwaukee Community Map. It's a free resource using the power of Google Earth to share local water stories and open up new ways for public audiences to explore our city and its relationship to water.

Name one thing you love about GIS and/or geography (I know, just one!): I love visualizing historic changes to the landscape. When I studied archaeology as an undergrad, I came to a simple yet profound realization that humans have literally shaped the landscape that surrounds us. The same is true for what I've dubbed our "waterscape." Historic map overlays in Google Earth allow us to dramatically toggle between views of what was, what is, and what could be in ways that were exponentially more difficult to visualize when I was a kid. Watching the Eames' 1977 video "Powers of Ten" was amazing even in the early 2000s. Now we take this zoomability between scales for granted every day. It's amazing.

Why did you want to volunteer as a GeoMentor? I wanted to help share the story of the free Milwaukee Community Map in Google Earth because our team is moving into a phase where the collection of stories and data available through the map is really quite robust--call it a digital pocketknife--AND we're adding new dynamic video content including what we call "Deeper Dives." I work with K-12 educators in the Milwaukee area and am excited about sharing this resource in ways that are meaningful for educators to inspire the next generation. Of course, folks outside our area may find the tool valuable as well--both as a model for how to leverage existing digital platforms to empower local groups around publicly accessible GIS data, AND as a compelling portrait of the ways so many entities in Milwaukee are leading the charge to transform the urban stormwater challenge faced by many metropolitan areas into a triple-bottom-line asset by integrating green infrastructure into the cultural fabric of our "Water-Centric City."

What kind of GeoMentor volunteer opportunity and experience are you looking for? I am open to sharing the Milwaukee Community Map with anyone, but particularly educators. We hope to organize some more free workshops over the coming year. Motivated educators and the map-curious can feel free to email me!

If someone asked you why they should learn about GIS and/or geography, how would you respond in one sentence? Learning geography opens up a hidden world of understanding relationships between wholes and parts that enriches our experience of place and empowers strategic and tactical decisions great and small.

Email address: michaelalantimm@yahoo.com

Website(s) http://refloh2o.com/milwaukee-community-map; https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-timm-bb805096; http://www.matimm.com/

Twitter:  @platypusfound

Each month we feature GeoMentor volunteers to showcase the wonderful talent available in our community to assist K-12 schools.

Read our full collection of GeoMentor spotlights online. Want to be featured? Information is available on our program website.

Name: Dave Cooper

Position: Planning GIS Tech, Columbus Consolidated Government

What was your favorite class in K-12? Science and Social Studies were my favorite classes.

How did you first learn about GIS? I started out as a graphic designer and was introduced to GIS by my supervisor. I fell in love with it and never looked back. It has been a wonderful career.

Why did you want to volunteer as a GeoMentor? I work with the kids at church and love sharing my experience with them. It's amazing when you get one of those "ah-ha" moments, when you see their faces light up in discovery. I wanted to share my love of geography with them as well. That was how I got involved with geomentoring, just a desire to share the thing I love with a new generation.

What kind of GeoMentor volunteer opportunity and experience are you looking for? I enjoy working with anyone who has an interest in learning about GIS and its many forms - young professionals, kids, anyone who wants to have fun and learn about GIS.

If someone asked you why they should learn about GIS and/or geography, how would you respond in one sentence? Are you kidding? One sentence? Hmmm...If you can imagine it you can map it, let your mind take you to far off places and then make a map of it!

Email: davidcooper@columbusga.gov

Websites: Zoning Map for the CCG Planning Department; Hidden Gems of Columbus Georgia

Twitter: @DavidCooper5 

ATTN Southern New England Educators. Workshop opportunity announcement from Peter Stetson:

"I am hosting two workshops this summer for Southern New England educators called the "Power of Data". It is a NSF grant through Northern Arizona University designed to provide a basic understanding of Geospatial Inquiry. The workshop is for middle and high school educators. They will be paid $700 through the grant for their participation in a 5 day 35 hour workshop. They are asked to enhance a lesson they already use incorporating geospatial inquiry. Once they present the lesson students are asked to complete an anonymous survey after which the educators will be paid an additional $200.

Workshop 1 is June 24-28 in Woodward Hall at the University of Rhode Island and workshop 2 is in ASF Middle School, Coventry, RI August 19-23. Interested educators can contact me for more information or a link to the application. Applications are due April 26, 2019." 

Contact Peter at petestetson8@gmail.com.

Each month we feature GeoMentor volunteers to showcase the wonderful talent available in our community to assist K-12 schools.

Read our full collection of GeoMentor spotlights online. Want to be featured? Information is available on our program website

Name: Jennifer Marie Novy

Position/Job and Affiliation: GIS Technician III/Project Management & Engineering/Land Records

What was your favorite class in K-12: History

How did you first learn about and/or use GIS: I used mapping when I was in the military. My supervisor saw how much I enjoyed making/working with maps that he advised I seek a degree through the Denver University GIS department. I first took courses to obtain my GIS certificate; after completion, I decided to pursue my Masters in GIS. I successfully graduated from the GIS program in 2013. I have been making/working with maps ever since.

Name one thing you love about GIS and/or geography: People tend to learn better if there are visual pictures about a topic. GIS has significantly evolved, and with the help of GIS, maps paint a picture that helps end-users/customers better understand information. Working with customers and making maps for the public is my favorite thing about GIS.

Why did you want to volunteer as a GeoMentor: My son loves everything about maps and the work I do; he has inspired me to share my knowledge with today’s youth.

What kind of GeoMenter Volunteer opportunity and experience are you looking for: I am open to any opportunity to share GIS with the community. I have been doing GIS Day for the last three years and working for the public for the last 20 years. I love sharing GIS’s endless capabilities and how they can benefit from its use.

If someone asked you why they should learn about GIS and/or geography, how would you respond in one sentence: GIS can help individuals and organizations better understand spatial patterns and relationships, problem-solve, and make educated decisions.

Email: jennifer.novy@anchorageak.gov or novyjenniferm@gmail.com

Website(s): https://moa-muniorg.hub.arcgis.com/

The first GeoMentors newsletter issue of 2019 is out!  View the full issue here.

GeoMentor case studies document successful GeoMentoring engagements that not only show us how we can improve the program by learning from our GeoMentors' experiences, but also inspire and encourage other GeoMentors in their efforts! Check out our growing case study library to learn the different ways GeoMentors are working with the K-12 education community throughout the US. If you're interested in submitting your GeoMentor experience for a case study, we would appreciate you doing so through this survey.

Scott Freburg

Working in partnership with the Minnesota GIS/LIS Consortium, Minnesota Department of Education, Minnesota Geospatial Information Office, and the Minnesota Alliance for Geographic Education

City/State of School, School District, or Group: Workshops, training and geomentoring in over 200 school districts,43 charter schools and 50+ non-publics in Minnesota between 2014 and 2019. A continuing program to equip K12 teachers with GIS education, mentoring and support.

Grade level of students you or your educator collaborator work/worked with: K12 teachers in grades 2-12 were represented. We developed workshops and training for 790+ K12 teachers through face-to-face meetings and training. These teachers mainly represented middle and high school curriculum, but we have had over 40 elementary teachers get engaged. This training and mentoring has resulted in Minnesota winning the last two National Map Competition contests at the high school level and 30 winners of our State's Map Competition for middle and high school students over the past three years.

Subject/topic of class/group you assisted your collaborator with: All topics, mainly Science and Geography/History, but including agriculture, math, reading and literature.

Approximately how many students were engaged in GIS activities through this collaboration: Unknown ... but a lot! We have had over 400 students enter our three years of Minnesota on the Map GIS competitions. With 790+ teachers we could be reaching somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 students, or more, with some form of GIS education.

How did you connect with your collaborator? We connect through email and phone to Scott Freburg at MDE, through our workshops, training and Educator Day series and through AAG geo-mentor signups and State of Minnesota geomentor invitations.

Describe your collaboration process. Our geo-mentoring program is on-going and multiplying annually. We have about 45 teacher-mentor relationships right now and hoping to grow that substantially. Some of these relationships are ever-growing resulting in long term growth.

Describe the tasks you assisted your collaborator with. Everything from visiting classrooms to helping students with their Map Competition story maps to helping teachers find, and bring in data to ArcGIS. Almost any GIS geospatial activity has been rendered to teachers through our geomentor relationships.

What available resources, if any, did you use or help your collaborator use to implement GIS in K-12 education? We have definitely used resources from the GeoMentors website. We have also utilized Esri grants, GIS/LIS funding and curriculum including geoinquiries, story maps, spatial analysis, survey123 and collector.

Did you develop any new educational materials or GIS activities through your collaboration? We are working on a set of Minnesota based geoinquiries. The URL below points to a few of the GIs that are being developed. The Shipwrecks geoinquiry was the first one has been showcased and utilized in multiple workshops and teacher mentoring. Later this year we should have 6-7 additional geoinquiries based solely on Minnesota data.

http://umn.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MinimalGallery/index.html?appid=4b2176a8beb842d493a3c762b65e0b54 

What did you gain from the experience? What do you think your educator collaborator and/or the students gained? Working with teachers and students to help them gain GIS knowledge and develop spatial thinking skills is the best thing I have done in my 30 years in GIS. Helping formulate and develop these trainings and geomentoring relationships and then hearing of success stories ... Priceless!

At some point in the future all of this and much more will be showcased on our Minnesota Geospatial website. This will be an all-in-one website for K12 teachers. It will hold videos, training, curriculum, data and will continually evolve. The website is www.mngiseducation.org. For now it is more of a holding place but by this time in 2020 we expect it to be up and running with tons of K12 information.

Any additional comments about your experience? Without the collaboration of so many organizations and GIS professionals around the state, this would not be possible. Minnesota is known for its rich GIS history and our entrance into the K12 world has been nothing short of incredible. Minnesota is proud to be a leader in GIS and in helping K12 teachers and students become more spatially educated.

Questions can be sent to Scott Freburg, scott.freburg@state.mn.us

Each month we feature GeoMentor volunteers to showcase the wonderful talent available in our community to assist K-12 schools.

Ashok Peddi

Position and Affiliation: GIS Instructor; Hyderabad, India

Each month we feature GeoMentor volunteers to showcase the wonderful talent available in our community to assist K-12 schools.

Jenni Lansing

Position and Affiliation: Senior Environmental Research Analyst with the City of Minneapolis – Health Department