Latest Contributions by CharlieFitzpatrick

As a "country kid," I was surrounded by miracles. One was the annual appearance and life pattern of Monarch butterflies. My older brothers sought out just the right milkweed plants and brought them home to watch a little speck become a miniature animated kite that flew off into the world in just a few weeks. Years later, I was captivated by the migration … and then alarmed by the dangers these tiny, fragile wanderers face. In a world besieged by daily reminders of existential threats, it is important to note marvels; they restore delight, wonder, and especially hope. Adults overseeing young learners need to pay enough attention to the miraculous to parry the depressing. When people discover a treasure and come to cherish it, they will more willingly work on its behalf, even if only in little ways. Recognizing and acknowledging the miraculous is the first essential step -- a sine qua non -- for protecting it. Journey North is a program that tracks migrations and seasons. Phenology, visible change over space and time, citizen science, the internet, and maps come together to let learners and admirers of all ages collaborate on documenting or even just viewing the wondrous around us. A special opportunity approaches: The International Monarch Monitoring Blitz is July 29 - August 7.  Old and young alike can seek out these extraordinary butterflies (or other delights), share sightings, and inspect the maps. Join the process!   {Photo courtesy of Chris Bremer} ... View more

It is with mixed emotions that I note how well the world has awakened to climate change. We are experiencing it within our own lifetimes. Fifty years ago, I first encountered discussion of it in college, and Landsat began giving us steady glimpses of such changes. Now, citizen scientists are gathering data about it, and you can participate, July 26 to August 26, 2022. Friends at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies have even built GIS apps within which you can examine the citizen science data and add a feature layer of GLOBE Land Cover Observations to your ArcGIS map. The GLOBE Program invites you to participate in an upcoming challenge: "Land Cover in a Changing Climate." Use the GLOBE Observer mobile app to photograph the current land cover and document evidence of change in the area. Then complete the in-app field notes with your local, on-the-ground knowledge, which is especially helpful for scientists. Weekly themes for video reels and activities include: People and Places, Plants and Habitats, Food and Farms, Water and Wellness, and Ice and Climate.  And a bonus! If you contribute 25 observations during July 26 - August 26, 2022, the GLOBE Observer team will send you a digital Landsat image of one of your observations. If you contribute 50 or more observations during the challenge, they will mail you Landsat commemorative material. Learn more about the challenge at: https://observer.globe.gov/land-cover-2022   ... View more

On May 27, 2014, the White House announced Esri's contribution to US Education, a billion-dollar commitment. Since then, the offering has grown, and coverage has spread globally. So how can a teacher, school, or district get the best bang from this commitment? See what each can do. For the Teacher: Best bang comes from learning the basics of ArcGIS Online by yourself. Steps 1-9 of Getting Started take about an hour, and many teachers are content with what they know and can do at that point, all without needing a login. Once you have the basics, build capacity by going beyond #9. See the license map to determine if your school or district has the ArcGIS School Bundle. Talk with your department head, tech staff, or administration about who has set this up … or should. For the School: Best bang comes when students can log in to create, save, and share (even with just their teacher) -- not just "see and use" but actively build knowledge. This requires logins. Clarify who is managing teacher and student accounts -- organizing usernames and privileges following best practices, such as not using personally identifiable information. Ensure there is appropriate knowledge and capacity among staff in case of absences. Teachers in social studies, science, and CTE are the most common users of GIS, but teachers in every subject and grade (even elementary) are doing it. Identify teachers interested in building GIS skills and sharing with colleagues. Who receives and will share info from Esri's freely available publications, enews, blogs, and webinars? Who has used or will engage in Esri's freely available online instruction? Encourage use of groups and hub sites for sharing content with appropriate participants. For the District: Best bang comes from making logins easy, standardized, centralized, and free of personally identifiable information. This is easiest through single sign-on, but doable with login/password. Within district websites or SSO application panels for students and teachers, set a choice for ArcGIS Online with appropriate icon and name. Eliminate duplication and reduce operational issues by consolidating separate school licenses within a single district. Contact Esri Schools Team (schools@esri.com) for guidance. Build community using groups and hub sites, custom roles and privileges, and good metadata (tags, categories, descriptions) about content and people. Encourage sharing across the district: knowledge and skills, opportunities for collaboration, and examples or templates that all can see, celebrate, learn from, and engage. Are your students getting their share of a billion dollar commitment? You can help them get the best bang, to build knowledge, skills, and a future! ... View more

Students in high school and middle school can do impressive work, even under stressful circumstances. That’s the biggest takeaway from looking at the product of the 2022 ArcGIS Online Competition for US High School and Middle School Students. The full state results and national honorees are publicly posted for anyone to explore, with links going directly to student creations. The high school national winner, Hannah Osborne, a homeschool student in grade 11, did a powerful analysis and presentation of the problem faced by large numbers of rural residents in Tennessee and, by extension, across the nation. The middle school national winner, Maya Trutschl, in grade 8 at Caddo Middle Magnet School in Shreveport, Louisiana, researched and presented about a powerful architectural style well represented in her city. Both winners show a laudable sense of balance in their meticulous but focused documentation and presentation. A trio of honorable mentions -- from a high school in Maryland, a high school in Nebraska, and a middle school in Rhode Island -- also deserve a close look. Again, these three show strong documentation about their task, good geographic exploration, and nice presentation. And even beyond these five national awardees are another 180 from 35 states who deserve exploration, with topics ranging across a broad spectrum of geographic considerations. The 2023 competition will get started in the fall. At a time of continued stress and torment for us all, there’s probably no better inspiration than exploring what young minds and hearts have produced even before receiving a high school diploma. See it all at https://esriurl.com/agoschoolcomp! Catch interviews with winners, and analysis, Thu June 16 (5-6pmPT) in the T3G Webinar, public invited (free registration, required).   ... View more

Hardly a day goes by without my team getting a request to adjust who is the admin of an Org. This happens so often that I wrote about it before (linked below), and it continues. We see very little info about any Org, but we can see "Primary Admins" -- people who receive from Esri essential messages about Org operation. Every Org has at least 1 admin, but should have more, and at least 2 who are primary admins. Smart management of school Orgs involves at least 2 savvy admins (p.18 of https://esriurl.com/agoorgsforschools). So, why do we get these requests to adjust admins? Because so many admins are not using the simplest best practice! I dug deep into our data. Of currently over 6500 school Orgs in USA, only 220 have more than one primary admin … less than 4%. This is a situation that takes admins less than five minutes to grasp and one minute to solve. To understand the situation, see the blog "Fun with GIS 246." Then, if you are an Org admin, take a minute to log into your Org and follow the graphic in the blog. ... View more

The AAG website focused on GeoMentors has been retired but there is still some guidance available. See https://esriurl.com/geomentors, a stop-gap post with guidance for people who want to help educators but seek a little guidance on how to do that. ... View more

Four prominent professional educator associations and a national coalition recently issued a stentorian call against politicizing schools. The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), National Science Teaching Association (NSTA), and the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), all based in USA, joined hands in issuing "Freedom to Teach" (https://ncac.org/news/freedom-to-teach). Pondering the approach of Earth Day 2022, I thought back to the first event, Earth Day 1970. I was in 11th grade; my family was all ardent nature enthusiasts. Earth Day was one of the first times I grasped at an intestinal level how different were the knowledge bases, assumptions, and views of others, including people I knew. In retrospect, Earth Day began the shift from my then-fervent expectation of being a biologist to becoming a geography teacher. Reading the news from Ukraine recently, I lingered over the map. Some people see patterns and relationships only when shown them on a map; some see these automatically in the complex fabrics of real life space and time, and use maps to illuminate and clarify the patterns and relationships for others. I wondered what teachers in Russia were teaching their students. What did their maps look like? What did they hear? Then again, how much might I, as a school teacher in USA today, be able to explore with students the complex issues of today, researching actions and conditions in an ethical, caring, but unflinching manner to discover and expose objective truths. What happens if a map uses fabricated data, or a story excludes key facts, or some perspectives are completely ignored? A bell rang in my head, from a classmate of my brother two years older. The story this fellow shared on his yearbook page hit me hard back then. Pondering the difference between heaven and hell, Rabbi Baal Shem Tov sought divine help, and was shown a room with a long table piled high with food, and men with utensils strapped to the lengths of their arms such that each could pick up the food, but could not move it to his mouth. And so they starved in the midst of plenty. This is hell, the rabbi understood. He was then shown a second banquet room, again with food piled high, and men with utensils similarly configured, but they were all happy and well fed. Looking closer, the rabbi realized that this was indeed heaven, for the men had survived by learning to feed each other. The challenges facing our society, nation, species, and planet are numerous, interwoven, dynamic, titanic, tireless, and without mercy. We have made some important strides on some challenges that faced the world back in 1970, but have lost ground in other ways. In our collective efforts to build a better world, we make progress only through honest understanding. We cannot afford to cripple some of our most knowledgeable, skilled, and dedicated helpers by handcuffing one of their most powerful tools -- objective truth. Politicizing schools makes an already difficult job even harder. Our only route to survival is through seeking and acting on truth.   (With special thanks to Chuck, class of 1969) ... View more

[[Links below updated as of Aug 22, 2023.]] "I want to help a teacher! What should I do?" For at least 30 years, Esri president Jack Dangermond has encouraged GIS users to support schools, teachers, clubs, and students in learning about GIS. We call people who do this "geomentors." In the early days, it was generally easy to talk with people, but much harder to engage technically. These days, it's much easier to engage technically, but harder to arrange the collaboration. There is no formal geomentor program in USA or globally, but there are some guidelines that can help.   1. Geomentors need to have a relationship with someone to help them out. These take time and effort to establish and maintain, and follow the same model as other relationships: see what you have in common with someone, and how you can help them. Some potential mentees might come calling, but it's more likely mentors will need to seek them out. Because of that, focus on seeking adults, not minors; educators might let you work with students once they are comfortable with who you are and what you know, but even if not, you can help the educator. 2. How GIS users can most effectively seek someone to help 2a. Exploring potential engagement is easier when a connection already exists. Look for educators in your circle, or your circle's circle: family, friends, neighbors, work, religious institution, clubs, etc. 2b. Look for someone who teaches earth science, environmental science, geography, or history. Ask what they do, and if they use maps. 2c. If making a cold call to a local school, seek the library, media, or technology leads. They often have a good idea about educators with related subject interests, tech interests, and/or an exploratory mindset. 2d. Interested educators can be found at all student grade levels. If looking for a grade band at which to start your search, try "middle school" (roughly grades 4-8, or ages 9-13); they often have more capacity to integrate, and the freedom to try things. 3. Find out what the educator knows and seeks. 3a. Have they heard of GIS? Do they like maps? Do they use maps in their activities? Even a single YES opens gates of opportunity. 3b. Are they currently overwhelmed with work? Offer a 15-minute primer via this sequence: 3b1. 1-min intro to GIS video LINK 3b2. 7-min video of rising 6th graders introducing a new tool for education ("MapMaker" at Esri User Conference 2023 LINK 3b3. Webpage with info about MapMaker, resources for its use, and launch links LINK 3b4. StoryMap (with video) on GeoInquiries LINK 3b6. Sets of instructional content called GeoInquiries LINK 3c. Do they just want a map or app or two to play with? Try these examples: 3c1. simple 3D web app with a few capacities LINK 3c2. simple 2D web map with recent earthquakes LINK 3c3. simple 2D web map with USA historical overlays LINK 3c4. simple plan for exploring with Map Viewer LINK 4. Does the school have access to software? Do they have logins in place? Do they know the basics and want to go farther? (Mentors should not start here; ensure key mindsets and capacity first with above items.) 4a. Software is available to schools, districts, and clubs for free for instructional use LINK  4b. Managing a school/district/club license is different from that for adults, and can be confusing for educators. See key guidance on logins and operations LINK 4c. Do educators want students to engage with data and do projects? Do they want to see what teachers and students do together? Point to these examples: 4c1. GeoProjects LINK 4c2. Student Competition LINK 4c3. Teacher Video Challenge LINK 4c4. Esri User Conference videos LINK 4d. Do you or educators want help with specific resources in the school license? 4d1. Videos from Esri Schools team LINK 4d2. Resources on ArcGIS Online LINK 4d3. Resources on Survey123 LINK 4d4. Resources on Dashboard LINK 4d5. Resources on StoryMaps LINK Geomentors sometimes have to do a lot of work to get started, but sometimes that work can change many, many lives.   ... View more

Calling all ArcGIS School Bundle admins! Did your software license begin before June 2020? If so, your Organization's homepage may still use the original template. It was OK back then, but wasn't mobile friendly, and didn't let you have as much control. In the March 2022 update, any Orgs still using the old template will be automatically upgraded to the newest. So it's a good time for Org admins to adjust your setup, old or new. Admins, are you greeted with this alert when you log in (highlight ring mine)?   Even if you don't see the first notice, you might see this indication (highlight ring mine):   Regardless, your homepage may still need a makeover. Can you remember where to do it?   Think about making your homepage reflect your entire school/district/state. How about a nice image, plus a locator map for the students, teacher, parents, GIS professionals, and outside world who wonder about location? Maybe make some new content easily accessible, or add important GIS events for the school, like the ArcGIS Online Competition underway, with your school's deadline and a link for info. Or highlighting projects done by classes. For more ideas and information, see these resources: Dec 2021 HigherEd blog by Brian Baldwin Sept 2021 ArcGIS blog by Lynnae Terpstra July 2021 ArcGIS blog by Bern Szukalski June 2021 ArcGIS blog by multiple authors ArcGIS Online documentation ... View more