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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/ ... View more

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

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 ... View more

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.   Ashok Peddi Position and Affiliation: GIS Instructor; Hyderabad, India What was your favorite class in K-12? Social Sciences - History How did you first learn about and/or use GIS? It was October 255 and I had joined a Masters in Geoinformatics program in the Department of Geography at Osmania University Hyderabad. It was my first day at college. I was fascinated to see the GIS and Remote Sensing lab room full of computers with huge screens. It was the first time I just clicked on Google Earth and it was an amazing experience. It was my first learning exposure to GIS and it gave me the enthusiasm for the rest of my life. Now I am a big fan of GIS and Maps. Name one thing you love about GIS and/or geography. Capturing the reality is one of the biggest challenges that technology faces. The generation of 3D GIS data from reality capture sources is one of my favorite aspects of GIS. Why did you want to volunteer as a GeoMentor? I was part of a CSR activity of my previous organization which had adopted a few government schools in the city where we used to teach English and Mathematics. I was a Point of Contact for a School and being a GIS Professional I started teaching Geography and GIS. The response was excellent. I am now teaching GIS and Geography in two other schools as well. What kind of GeoMentor volunteer opportunity and experience are you looking for? I love teaching high school students. It is really a tremendous experience. I feel amazed by their response and it is really something new that they are learning. I am looking for an experience where I can brainstorm with them in terms of GIS and Remote Sensing Technologies.  If someone asked you why they should learn about GIS and/or geography, how would you respond in one sentence? GIS helps you answer questions and solve problems by looking at your data in a way that is quickly understood and easily shared. GIS technology makes a difference in the world in part due to a wide variety of possible applications. Aside from trends and relationships, GIS skills can be useful for careers in real estate appraisal, retail, banking, natural resources management, emergency management and more. Email: peddiasok@gmail.com Websites: https://about.me/asok https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashokpeddi/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/geospatialtraining-india/?viewAsMember=true ... View more

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.   Jenni Lansing Position and Affiliation: Senior Environmental Research Analyst with the City of Minneapolis – Health Department What was your favorite class in K-12? Biology How did you first learn about and/or use GIS? I learned about it when I was in grad school at the University of Colorado at Denver. I took one online Introduction to GIS course and a Remote Sensing of the Environment course. At the time it seemed that GIS wasn’t being used as much as it is now and my thesis advisor approached me to work on a research project using GIS because I was one of the few people in my area of study with GIS experience. Name one thing you love about GIS and/or geography. I love the sense of place that you get when you step out of your 3-dimensional world and see everything in relationship to each other on a map. I’m terrible at direction in my real world, but it all makes sense to me when I see it on a map! Why did you want to volunteer as a GeoMentor? For me, it started as an opportunity to go into my own kids’ classrooms and share something that I love with them and their classmates. I wanted to be able to share with them a small aspect of what I do at work. What kind of GeoMentor volunteer opportunity and experience are you looking for? I enjoy working with elementary aged kids. It’s amazing how naturally they respond to technology! It is very intuitive for them. I’m looking for an experience where I can introduce the students to something new that they may end up using throughout their education and career. If someone asked you why they should learn about GIS and/or geography, how would you respond in one sentence? No matter what field you enter, there is likely a use to look at something geographically; experience with GIS will make you more marketable in your career. Email: jenni.lansing@minneapolis.mn.gov Website: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/health/index.htm ... View more

The December 2018 GeoMentors newsletter is out (and has been for a little bit, but we were on holiday....)!  View the full issue here. . ... View more

A GeoMentors Campaign for 2018 Geography Awareness Week and Beyond Is there a book that inspires you as a geographer? A book that made you more interested and intrigued by geography? Perhaps a go-to text that you refer others to when they want to know more about being a geographer or about your area of research or teaching? If you had to give elementary, middle, or high school students a book to spark their interest in geography, (besides an atlas...) what would it be? Adding geography to US K-12 schools isn’t just about finding ways to teach more geography directly in classrooms. It’s also about ways, big and small, to encourage students, or even just one student, to explore what geography has to offer and how it can help them understand their world. It can be about simply making more geography resources available for students to discover. For GAW 2018, we encourage and challenge GeoMentors and geographers across the country to donate 1 geography book to a school or public library in your community. Think outside the box, or perhaps we should say...outside the atlas. These don’t have to just be geography textbooks or even books that are overtly about the discipline of geography (geography doesn’t have to be in the title). Our discipline is diverse and many books are geographic in different ways - so be creative in thinking of books that excite you and ones that may also excite students! Yes, I’m in! Now, how should I go about this? Learn about local library donation policies. Check the school or public library websites for donation information or contact the librarian to find out about their donation policy and process, letting them know what you would like to do. Policies (and needs) may vary from one library to the next, so find out the process beforehand. Think of a few different books you are interested in donating and determine which, if any, the library may already have. You don’t want to duplicate their offerings! Donate the text of your choosing (or the cost of the text if the library wants to handle ordering it). Consider asking the librarian if you could provide a brief write-up of why you like this book and why you encourage students or anyone in general to read it (here’s a good chance to plug geography again!). They may be able to post or display your thoughts on the book  or in the library. Finally (if you want to, no requirement...), tell us about it!  Let the GeoMentors program know what book you have donated and why. Email geomentors@aag.org or tweet us @AAGGeoMentors (and use #GeoReads & #GAW2018). We’d love to hear your donations/recommendations and we’d love to share them! Not only may it inspire others to donate, your suggestions may inspire others to pick up a new geographic read as well! New to book donations? Here are some tips from the American Library Association. Just want to recommend a book? Yes! As another way to participate in this campaign, you can donate your idea for a suggested good geography read! Share it with us via email (geomentors@aag.org) or tweet us @AAGGeoMentors (use #GeoReads & #GAW2018). If you have room, tell us why you recommend it too! We would love to share everyone’s suggestions and compile a list! ... View more

Check out this great video of the work Michigan Tech is doing with high school students to capture data to study their community infrastructure and to realize the career possibilities with geospatial technology! ... View more

The December GeoMentors newsletter is out!  This issue features 2017 GIS Day and Geography Awareness Week wrap up, 3 year program stats, Santa Trackers, 2 new GeoMentor Spotlights, Animaniacs, USGS map downloads, and more!  View the full issue online. ... View more

Consider participating in a global community event focused on open mapping that is taking place soon - OpenStreetMap's (OSM) Geography Awareness Week activities (OSMGeoWeek). This is an annual coordinated community effort driven by the OSM community to encourage teachers, students, community groups, governments, private sector organizations, and map-lovers around the world to host “mapathons” and to create much-needed map data for humanitarian and development efforts. OSM works closely with MapGive, a State Department public initiative focused on open mapping that is amplifying outreach and organization for the event.   Last year, in partnership with HOT, MissingMaps, MapGive, YouthMappers, PEPFAR, and many more, there were 140 events in 42 countries - this year the goal is over #200mapathons! If you want to register an event or attend an event taking place near you, visit osmgeoweek.org for more details. Events can be of any size, and registration is easy - to register an event, fill out this FORM and your event will be registered on both the OSMGeoWeek and Missing Maps event pages. Regional support is available in some locations, so make sure you register your event. The project section of the site will include mapping projects where key partners have identified serious map data needs that can be filled through crowdsourced mapping.   Help spread the word by using #OSMGeoWeek on social media and following @MapGive. Contact mapgive@state.gov if you have any additional questions. ... View more

Are you attending the 2018 AAG Annual Meeting in New Orleans?  We are looking for GeoMentors to share their volunteer engagement stories in a panel session, “GeoMentors: A Showcase of Volunteer Efforts in K-12 Geography Outreach”.  The goal of the session is to provide a variety of example activities that our GeoMentors have done to spark conversation about approaches to geography education outreach and public engagement (one of the meeting’s major themes!).  We’re also planning to allow time for current GeoMentors and those new to or interested in the program to meet, interact, and learn from each other through a Q&A portion and further informal conversations after the presentations.  We welcome ALL GeoMentor presenters at all levels who have experiences to share (undergrad and grad students, we’d love to have you!). Panelists will each give a brief presentation (10 minutes max; 10 presentation slides max) providing a quick overview of the context (location, audience, and collaborators), content (topic, technology, activity), and process (from connecting with schools to developing/implementing activities) of their GeoMentor experience as well as any lessons learned. Think of this as a fun, informational show and tell of your volunteer experience to the very welcoming and supportive environment of our GeoMentor and geography community.  After the panelist presentations, we’ll have a Q&A session, encouraging any other attending GeoMentors to share their experience, and also allow time for mingling among all attendees to encourage further conversations about the program and geography education efforts. If you are interested in being a panelist, please contact  Jonathan Wessell at jonathan.wessell@gmail.com with your meeting pin number so we can add you to our session.  We’re excited to have you join us! ... View more

The February GeoMentors Newsletter is now available! Meet our featured GM, learn about GM events at the upcoming AAG meeting in Boston, & more! Including an announcment of program extension to 2019! The online version is available here:  http://bit.ly/2lvvQoy ... View more

The October GeoMentors Community Newsletter is now available!  View the PDF or check out the online version here:  http://bit.ly/2ekxp4L ... View more

A member of a workshop organization account we manage recently tried to publish a survey using Survey123 web and received the following message: "Oops! Failed to publish the survey."  How can we find out why the action failed?  He wondered if there are any limits to the number of questions that can be included?  Any suggestions to address this are greatly appreciated.  Thanks! ... View more