Latest Contributions by CharlieFitzpatrick

Think back to your early map reading days. Do you remember using an index or reference grid — rows and columns of letters and numbers — to find a zone in which to look for something? These grids are really helpful for many learners and many purposes. Now there is an app (still beta, but robust) with which to generate such grids as needed. It’s simple. Log in to the app with your ArcGIS Online credentials (publishing privileges are required), pan and zoom to the region of interest, set the desired number of rows and columns, click a button and drag a box, and a graphic grid appears. If you don’t like it, just hit the trash button and try it again. When happy, click the button, and the system generates a feature layer in your contents for you. It works at all scales I’ve wanted to try — from a parking lot to a continent. (Naturally, local level minimizes issues of cartographic distortion.) Some educators have wanted a grid atop a portion of their school grounds in order to assign data collection tasks, or even to reference player positions on an athletic field. Others have wanted a grid atop a state map to support teaching about features and locations. The grids can be generated quickly for ad hoc processes, and can be labeled, symbolized, and filtered by attribute. I like to put a grid atop just the topographic basemap, save the map, share it, and open the map in Explorer for ArcGIS. Try it, and I think you’ll agree: grids rule. ((This blog also posted at http://esriurl.com/funwithgis203.)) ... View more

Want to do a simple crowdsourcing activity? Want to engage students in exploring areas around school, across the state, or spanning the country, using both demographic and landscape data? Want to make it an activity based on your students’ choices? Want to use the analysis powers in an ArcGIS Online Organization? Try the “Community Round Mile.” By dropping a point, creating a circle of a certain distance around it, and enriching that buffer with particular data, you can get some fascinating “apples to apples” comparisons. But it takes a little planning to do more than once. The Community Round Mile activity is a three-part process that walks you through creating some simple data, sharing that data, and then expanding. This final part relies on Survey123, which just acquired some exciting new powers. Try this to “crowdsource data” among your classes. Enterprising states might even coordinate a state-specific effort emphasizing data of special interest. Check out the Community Round Mile! Charlie Fitzpatrick, Esri Education Manager (this blog is accessible as "https://esriurl.com/funwithgis206" ... View more

In spring of 2016, Minnesota announced an ArcGIS Online competition for high school and middle school students across the state. From initial discussion to completion was barely three months, but they had over 200 entries from 25 schools across the state. Hearing Minnesota’s initial announcement, Arkansas created a twin event. On the strength of these successes, it’s time to take the idea up a notch. Esri invites all U.S. states to conduct a state-based ArcGIS Online competition in 2017. For each state formally participating, students can submit to their school an ArcGIS Online presentation, web app, or story map about something inside the state borders. Schools can submit up to five projects to the state. Esri will provide each state ten prizes of $100, to go to five high school and five middle school projects. These ten awardees per state will get national recognition, with one each high school and middle school entry advancing to a top level competition. The best high school and middle school projects will earn trips to the 2017 Esri Education Conference in San Diego, CA. ArcGIS Online maps and apps help users of any age discover/ explore/ display data, show analyses, and present interpretations. Project-based learning experiences such as these help students build the essential problem-solving skills and in-depth background content knowledge needed for college, career, and civic life. GIS professionals abound across the country (Map#4 above)! They can help educators present ideas and strategies, establish an Organization account, and help students grasp the deeper learning available with GIS. Keep an eye out for opportunities to connect these valuable community resources to learners. Check out the competition! Charlie Fitzpatrick, Esri Education Manager This content also posted to http://esriurl.com/funwithgis207 ... View more

In spring of 2017, Esri is hosting a network of US state competitions for grades 4-12. Successful pilot events occurred in 2016 in Minnesota (MN) and Arkansas (AR). “Students had a lot of fun with it and liked the freedom of making any type of map they wanted,” said MN teacher Kyle Tredinnick. A high school student said “This project was one of the most rewarding things I have done. It makes me respect the amount of work people put into their maps and information because I have now gone through the same process.” MN event co-leader Scott Freburg said “One teacher commented ‘Students who were doing poorly in most of their classes were absolutely loving this competition and thriving.’” Competitions spark extra creativity and individuality, and students everywhere love that. MN students chose topics of personal interest ranging from commonplace to exotic: demographics, food, crime, pollution, health care, urban art, even Bigfoot sightings. The open-ended design yielded products ranging from more pictorial to more analytical. MN’s professional GIS community jumped in quickly, offering to judge, and providing special T-shirts to all entrants and their teachers. The competition was highlighted at the state’s annual conference for GIS professionals; interested teachers were supported to attend a day of training, and contest awardees spoke to the more than 300 conference attendees at lunch. The state geography teachers’ conference also provided special recognition to winners. (Top: MN co-leader Jim Hanson and some winners. Bottom: Teachers and competition winners at GIS conference.) Esri’s 2017 event has school, state, and national tiers. GIS professionals can help their state participate and serve as mentors or judges. Ultimately, one high school and one middle school winner will present at the 2017 Esri Conference. See the announcement for details. Charlie Fitzpatrick, Esri Education Manager (This item also posted as http://esriurl.com/funwithgis208.) ... View more

Story maps ROCK! Ever since their initial appearance, they have driven huge attention. Everyone wants to see a story map about their special topic; some want to make one. Good story maps take time and expertise to construct, just like writing a meaningful letter, generating effective images, and building powerful maps. A good story map is all three at once. One way to start being a good maker of story maps is to practice being a good consumer of creations by others. Just as riding around in a car helps us learn principles of driving, thoughtful viewing of other people's story maps helps us become effective creators. My colleague Joseph Kerski just wrote an excellent example of questions one might ask on a specific story map. But there are also questions that you and students can consider, no matter what the topic is. Here are my top five things to explore: FOCUS: After only a two-second view of the opening display, write your instantaneous one-sentence synopsis of what the story map documents. Then, after going thru it, write a two-sentence summary of (or take-away from) the story map. Do your before and after impressions match? POINT OF VIEW: After studying the story map, what can you tell about the creator's association with the content or topic? Is the story presented as "straightforward facts" (e.g. listing of local businesses) or is a particular perspective about the topic included? LOCATION: What location does the story concern? Where is it? How large an area is being addressed? Is the location central to the story (e.g. Rebirth of the Elwha River) or could the story be replicated easily in other places (e.g. Roadside Attractions in Minnesota)? GEOGRAPHY: What significant geographic patterns or relationships are on display in the story map? Are they presented to the viewer, or left to the viewer to discover? TECHNICAL: Describe any technical elements of the story map that you as an "editor looking over the shoulder of the creator" might want to point out as a possible issue. What items make you want to ask about how it was accomplished? There are hundreds of powerful learning aids waiting for viewers to dive in and learn. A speedy scan can show lots of different content and techniques quickly, but a slower and more thoughtful examination helps viewers of all ages become better creators. Building a good story map requires having a good idea of the end product before even starting. Like any creative process, authors will make a lot of edits, but having a clear vision of what makes an effective story map will help make one's creations powerful. Charlie Fitzpatrick, Esri Education Manager ... View more

When an experienced teacher retires, the loss can be huge. Fortunately, some stay engaged, learning insatiably and sharing more widely. So it will be with 8th grade geography teacher Dave Casey of Buffalo Middle School, in a small town just beyond the northwestern suburbs of Minneapolis. After decades of over 150 kids a day, with a bum knee getting replaced, Dave decided it was time to "retire." But he has big plans to help others learn to teach with GIS. Dave started with ArcView 3.3, "as soon as I switched from teaching history to teaching geography, maybe 10 ... hmm ... well, I guess 15 years ago now. In 30-some years of teaching, GIS is the best thing I've ever come across ... by far the best education tool I've ever used. The one complaint I hear most often from kids, why they don't like these things I do with them, is that it forces them to think. It's preparing them for the future too. It forces them to use higher level thinking, and that's where I see kids who are struggling in school do really well with this, and bring it over to other areas of study." His colleagues are learning the ropes of the school's ArcGIS Online Organization... "Right now we have over 400 in the Org, close to 500. I probably use it most but others are starting. I've introduced science teachers and they're doing it. Once they got to Online, they were hooked. I used GeoInquiries, sometimes building things to add to them. I wanted the kids to be on computers as much as possible. What I've been doing a lot of now is building a presentation, and they really like that. They do it on their own machines, they have to look at the map and I'll have like 26 questions. Kids are so tech-savvy... We used to have to show them everything but they can figure things out so fast now, they teach me things. That's the biggest change in education; they want instant gratification, but with GIS they have to think. "GIS really evens the playing field. Some of the kids who were not the so-called gifted kids, they perform much better with GIS; they look outside the box to solve problems. Some of the kids with whom we had the most discipline problems, they're the ones who probably did the best job with GIS. They're engaged, and it really forces them to concentrate. Even the kids who are the second language learners are able to do quite well with GIS. "I just talked with one parent, the kid got into building story maps, and he's now going into GIS in college, getting a GIS degree. On parents night, I said we'll use a lot of GIS, and a bunch of parents said they use it in their work ... city administrators and people in businesses ... They wrote an article in the paper about me using GIS, and I got an email from another student who said how cool it was that we were using GIS because he's now with the CIA and that's what he does, using Esri." Many experienced educators who have watched big changes are still passionate about kids, education, science, understanding the world, and solving problems. GIS can be a challenge for educators not yet comfortable with teaching. But there are some fabulous resources out there, skilled educators who know GIS, and still want to save the world, even after they hang up their gradebook. Dave Casey (right) shares with another teacher at Esri's 2013 T3G Institute. ... View more

SAVE THE DATE! Friday Aug 7, 10:30-11:30amPT MeetUp on Zoom! Turn on your camera and mic and make new friends! ((Address was posted on Friday morning ... see https://educ-k12.hub.arcgis.com)) After a quick intro, "Round#1" begins. The RoomHost will randomly split people into different breakout rooms with ~6-8 people. Somebody start with a 1-minute intro of who you are, where you work, what you do Everyone should do their 1-minute intro, and then ... chat! After about 15 minutes, the RoomHost will send the 1-minute warning, then pull everyone back to the main room Everyone catches their breath and then gets re-sorted into Round#2 ... and then Round#3 If you can't think of anything to talk about after the intros, Maybe try this topic: Round#1: How well did your institution handle March10-June10? Round#2: How well prepared is your institution for Aug10-Dec31? Round#3: What were you surprised by in March10-Aug6? Then everyone adjourns by 11:30amPT in order to be ready for the K12 Panel discussion starting at 12noonPT, with some new friends! ... View more

[[Updated Aug 3, 2020 inline]] Esri's 2020 User Conference was online and, while not quite the same as past events, was still a powerful learning experience that more than four times the normal audience attended for free. We hope Esri's 2020 Education Summit will also attract many more than usual! (All times are listed in Pacific time zone. See the online agenda for details.) [[UPDATE: SAVE THE HOUR, Fri Aug 7 10:30-11:30amPT for K12 ZOOM MEETUP!]] The whole event will span three days, and registrants may attend any portion of the three days. Higher ed will consume the morning hours (Pacific time) of Wed-Fri, and the portion dedicated to K12 schools will be Thu-Fri afternoons (PT). Each segment of the K12 sessions will include content for new users and for more experienced users. We'll do our best to keep it from being a one-direction experience, with encouragement to chat and tweet, fill out surveys, engage in polls, and of course text your socially distant colleagues. Join your many peers and meet us online at the Education Summit for a fast recharge of ideas during this remarkable time. ... View more

Charlotte Smith, from UC Berkeley School of Public Health, is participating in the Science Friday Institute, Aug.3-6, 2020, and will present about her research in Mexico and the tools she uses to collect and analyze data. She teaches Applied GIS for Public Health, and will present on how she incorporates GIS and spatial analysis. The Institute (desribed as "4 Days Of Scientist + Educator Collaboration Sessions") may be of interest for educators who love exploration, analysis, learning ... and GIS. See full info here. ... View more

From Barbaree Duke : Geographic cocktails https://vinepair.com/articles/15-cocktails-named-after-cities/   From Barbaree Duke : Mappy Resources - GISetc's Hub https://online-mapping-resources-geoport.hub.arcgis.com/ or. https://arcg.is/gisetcHUB From Roger Palmer : In case you don't know I now work at Pasco Scientific designing environmental hardware to put data onto maps!!!!   Here's a climate graph map I built to start inspiring my colleagues to think how we can map more data play around  with the pop ups.  Based on most recent 30 year averages. If there is a sharing issue on the resources, just email me at:  [email protected]   214-533-8374 https://pascoscientific.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=16ba3032f00a4470a2fcc78f6a9a114e From Michael Camponovo, UT Knoxville : https://twitter.com/bcredibility?lang=en  Bookcase Credibility Twitter feed   From Michael Camponovo, UT Knoxville : https://www.megabitess.org/   From Heidi Ragsdale : https://www.techgirlz.org/techshop/explore-the-world-with-story-maps-camp/   From Nicole Ernst : Shameless plug for GeoTech workshop: https://arcg.is/LK44O on remote sensing August 3-5   From Matt Winbigler : distance idea from last spring was signs of spring with Survey 123 -- grade 7 https://cloquet.maps.arcgis.com/apps/AttachmentViewer/index.html?appid=9ceed4e64b0f4ae3bfebce3a7123f0a4   From Fran Harvey : Story Map Time Capsule ~ Online Teacher PD   From Stanley Mubako : Had fun sharing skills from T3G in Africa last summer: http://arcg.is/nybzG From Rebecca Theobald : GeoCivics is looking for mappers to create a variety of Electoral District maps based on prioritizing different redistricting criteria (competitiveness, communities of interest, compactness, etc.).  Look for more information, or email Rebecca Theobald at [email protected].  Check it out - https://www.uccs.edu/geocivics/   From Rebecca Theobald : If you are interested in a perspective on COVID-19 in China, check out my college classmate's blog (go back to December).  https://qingwendy.blogspot.com/  We used it in real time in my "Spaces of Political Geography" class. The students asked questions and she answered (all written - we thought about trying to connect in real time, but then we went to remote learning and that was not going to work).  Bottom line - my students were somewhat less shocked about stay-at-home orders because they had been reading these blog entries. From Joseph Kerski : Because I know Amy is not going to mention this as she's so humble, check out this new article about Amy Work -  https://www.esri.com/en-us/landing-page/industry/education/2020/uc-san-diego-case-study   From Joseph Kerski : Mapping Hour - https://mappinghour-k12.hub.arcgis.com/   From Joseph Kerski : If you need to georeference an image in ArcGIS Pro, here are a few videos of mine for how-to's - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg7gvuYZq0c   From Laura Bowden : Data Science E-Learning Guide: https://www.esri.com/training/assets/downloads/Higher_Ed_Guide_Esri_Spatial_Data_Science.pdf ... View more

Hi T3G Alum! GISetc invites you to an informal virtual gathering specifically for T3G alums after the completion of the first day of the Esri UC 2020. Charlie Fitzpatrick and Laura Bowden will welcome us all and share a few interesting GIS Ed tidbits. When: Jul 13, 2020 04:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) You must register in advance for this meeting (because you are special)! https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUrc-Cgpz0pE9JGOXuIQyqV25_jebYdeCBh After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. We will have some fun and feel free to bring your virtual "fruity beverage" to the event as well! See you soon!   The GISetc crew -- Anita M. Palmer GISetc: Educational Technology Consultants [email protected] ... View more

Esri's 2020 User Conference will be online, free upon registration, and open to all educators and even students. Teachers attached to an ArcGIS School Bundle (see map) who register with their "properly configured ArcGIS Online login with Esri access enabled" and Esri Customer Number can have access to all the presentations. K12 students registering down the "Student" channel with such a login plus Esri Customer Number can get in without providing personally identifiable info. What's available: What should I see? All: Plenary sessions #1 (Mon), #2 (Tue), #3 (Wed) Educators & Students: Tech Sessions etc Educators only: Expo ((Here's the summary storymap: "GIS in Schools 2020")) What's when? (All times in Pacific Daylight Time. These are highlights; check the Agenda to confirm) Mon July 13, 2020 10:00-12:00 = Plenary#1 12:15-4:00 = Expo 1:40-2:40 = Tech Sessions etc 2:50-3:50 = Tech Sessions etc Tue July 14 // Wed July 15 7:30-9:40 and 11:10-3:50 = Expo 7:30-8:30 = Tech Sessions etc 8:40-9:40 = Tech Sessions etc 10:00-11:00 = Plenary#2(Tue) // Plenary#3(Wed) 1:40-2:40 = Tech Sessions etc 2:50-3:50 = Tech Sessions etc Tech Session segments are pre-recorded and will be released at specific times, with presenters handling Q&A live, and recordings available (to "non-public" registrants) on demand thereafter, and released to the general public at some future point. It's easy to get overwhelmed by all the choices, but here are two strategies and a couple highlights: Use text search, and focus on a few items: introduction, online map, online analysis, Living Atlas, Survey123, Dashboards, StoryMaps.  Use filters. Choosing "ArcGIS Online" and "Education" at the same time in the "Event Track" generates a nice set of results. If there's "nothing to see" in a given time slot, look for items released previously. Here are two highlight sessions for teachers: Overview of Field Data Collection for Classroom Projects You've Collected Data. Now What? In the Expo, exhibitors will have focused content about their products and services ready for inspection, plus staff on hand to text chat and set up appointments. These key education exhibitors will be there: Davis Demographics (V184) GISetc Educational Technology Consultants (V221) National Geographic (V256) American Association of Geographers (V261) Plus a number of college and universities, non-profits, and government agencies Also in the Expo, Esri Showcases will have focused content for specific products and industries, with on-demand presentations or content to download, and staff on hand to text chat and set up appointments, including Esri Product Teams Esri Industry Teams (e.g. Education, and here's a GIS in Schools 2020 StoryMap) Finally, see also this collection of tips spanning the Education Industry, while will be updated as we get closer. Encourage your colleagues to attend! This may be a once-in-a-lifetime chance! ... View more