Latest Contributions by TomBaker

The use of Raspberry Pis are increasingly common in schools - especially in STEM, Maker, and field experience courses.  Raspberry Pis (version 4 at the time of this blog) hold the computing power of a laptop - at a fraction of the cost.  They can also run off of 5V battery power and have wifi built-in.  In short, they can useful for collecting data in and around school.  Oh, and did I mention there are dozens if not hundreds of cheap sensors that can be plugged directly into the device for data collection? This isn't a new technique at all, but we are seeing more sensors and increased computing capacity within the Pi platform - making it increasingly interesting.  I started writing on this about two years ago.  You can see how far we've come in that time. By way of a quick example, I created a Survey123 form with a grade (numeric) and short name (text) fields.  I set the permissions to allow anyone to contribute data (without logging in).  Survey123 creates some ArcGIS Online components for you when you create a new survey.  Here, I'm only going to focus on the "field_worker"  feature service it creates.  Using a little Python code and the point layer's "Add Feature" REST functionality, I can send data directly into my field_worker feature service with a few lines of code.  In this case, that code looks like: import requests import json url = 'https://services.arcgis.com/BG6nSlhZSAWtExvp/ArcGIS/rest/services/survey123_1570d91b042744f8af17caadbacace8e_fieldworker/FeatureServer/0/addFeatures' params={"f":"pjson","token":"","rollbackOnFailure":"false","features":'{"attributes" : {"shortname" : "test_user_name"}}'} x = requests.post(url, params=params) In the first two lines we import two basic Python libraries (json and requests). In the next line, we identify the URL of the "Add Feature" function associated with our feature service's REST endpoint. Parameters allow us to specify the data to pass.  You'll see a few non-attribute parameters like "f", "token", and "rollbackOnFailure".  For starting out, just keep these as-is and change the attribute "short name" to the attribute in your feature service. As my colleague, @Kylie has noted, this code can also be converted to run inside of a webhook tool like Microsoft Power Automate or Integromat (using the HTTP module).  In a webhook-based case, you may be using the script (with a different endpoint) to update a feature service's data rather than just adding it. If you or your students are into the STEM, Maker, coder, or IoT learning scenes, be sure to turn on your students' ArcGIS Online Notebook access and check out the Python API!   ... View more

  With over 150 maps and nearly 1,000 data layers, GeoInquiries can be a little intimidating to sort through.  That's why we created the GeoInquiries Atlas! The GeoInquiry Atlas lets you review all the GeoInquiries, by subject-collection, in a map-forward approach.  It makes scanning the collection fast - and for more people - fun!  Teachers will also find handy links to the teacher PDFs and student worksheets. Explore the atlas >> ... View more

  Learn the basics of survey design, data collection, and simple mapping to support your classroom or club project. Even during a pandemic, students can safely collect and map data to help address a problem or project. Learn the tools and methods to collecting data when most (or all) of your students are learning from home. This session will focus on ArcGIS Online and Survey123 in K-12 and informal education. All software and instructional resources used are offered at no-cost for youth instruction. Date: Tuesday, March 16th 7:00pm - 8:00pm Central Register Now >> ... View more

Join the Esri K12 Team this December at one (or more) of these webinar events! Online Maps for Ohio Schools December 10 with the Esri K-12 Team Learn about online mapping for classrooms with ArcGIS Online and other free tools and instructional materials from Esri. Boost Learning with Better Maps and Apps December 15 at Directions Magazine Interactive maps and apps engage learners, but presentation matters. Students, teachers, and parents-who-teach can boost the impact of their work by improving the display, adding custom data, using analysis, and more. Snag some tips for everything from quick maps to competition entries! Drones! December 17 with the Esri T3G Team (open to all) Learn the basics of drones, their use in educational settings, and starting points for integration with GIS in this fast-paced webinar. ... View more

With changing educational conditions come changing practices. Do you have a state or regional virtual K-12 event for teachers coming up? Are you interested in having an Esri K12 presentation? Let us know! Complete the form below (https://arcg.is/1C5uKK1) and we will follow up with you. ... View more

I have been able to judge the ArcGIS Online Competition for US High Schools and Middle Schoolssince it began.  I’d like to offer some tips to teachers and students as they consider creating competitive projects for the 2020-2021 school year. 1. Start with a clearly stated question. This isn’t a book report. It’s an investigation aided by maps. Tell readers what you want to know, learn, or are curious about. This frames the entire story map and may mention how you plan to tackle the question or problem. If most of your story map is telling about others’ data, stories, or information, then you may want to reconsider your question. 2. Storymaps have always been more competitive than apps. According to the competition rules, you can submit apps.  But one has yet to win.  They don’t compete well because they usually don’t tell a clear story without explanation. Regardless, all maps must be understandable. Include a legend or clear narrative to describe a map’s content. 3. The best projects involve collecting some data outdoors. The data might be environmental, historical, or social but there’s no mistaking the extra mile a student takes when collecting, mapping, and analyzing their own data in conjunction with other relevant GIS data.  If COVID-19 or similar is active during the 2020-2021 school year, judges’ expectations will respect public health guidelines. 4. Customize your map pop-ups. Few things are more disheartening than seeing beautiful data only to be let down by pop-ups that aren’t configured - or image links that are broken.  In fact, broken images in map markers are probably as common as unconfigured markers/pop-ups. 5. Fill out the metadata! The item details page contains the storymap’s metadata.  Fill it out. 6. Check the national rules from Esri about media inclusion. If the national competition limits storymaps to two non-student created images, don’t use more.  Check the number of videos and length allowed.  These limits are in place to ensure the final story map clearly shows student work - and not just a collection of media from around the web. Keep in mind that not all states judge based on the media limits, guidelines, and rules in the national contest.  A story map that does well in a state competition, may not do well in national judging. 7. Analyze some data I’ve seen a lot of maps containing markers with a bit of text and maybe an image.  The maps can be beautiful and stories compelling, but fundamentally, geographic data analysis (visually or with tools in ArcGIS Online) will always standout.   A buffer has a starting point - but don’t stop there.  Bonus tip: Optimize large datasets that you build.  If you post a map layer with many vertices and columns of unused data, consider optimizing the layer so that it loads quickly. Good luck! ... View more

New learning resources from Waters to the Sea®, include Story Map programs on the Mississippi River, Guadalupe River in Texas, and the island of Kauaʻi. See the links below for more info: Waters to the Sea® Mississippi River Adventure: waterstothesea.org/mississippi Waters to the Sea® Guadalupe: waterstothesea.org/guadalupe Waters to the Sea® Kaua'i Adventure: Waterstothesea.org/kauai ... View more

If you are having difficulties joining the Mapping Hour GROUP - and you are not using a temporary Mapping Hour account - see the linked YouTube video for help.  If you continue to struggle, email [email protected]  ... View more

Programmed instruction (PI) has been around for decades – probably 50 years.  It’s designed to provide bite-sized chunks of information that the reader must read and then answer a short question about.  Ideally, if the reader is correct they progress and if wrong, some mitigating instruction is applied.  The example with Survey123 checks the major pedagogical boxes of PI.   Keep in mind, this is not intended to be an assessment.   https://arcg.is/CGyv    ... View more

If you like YouTube and love maps, subscribe to the Mapping Hour content on YouTube.  You'll be the first to know when new content is posted - oftentimes getting a sneak peak at videos before they even post to the home page at http://esriurl.com/mappingHour.  Besides, subscribing to the channel helps us better understand the value of the content to you! ... View more

As we create more GeoProject starters, we are creating demonstrations of the technology as examples.  To help seed our newest geoproject, consider completing our survey "My Happy Place".  The complete geoproject will be available soon for teachers to replicate. Explore the map data submitted to the demonstration survey. ... View more

With schools everywhere now out of physical classrooms for weeks or months, educators and parents alike are looking for learning materials that can be used with their students.  We encourage classroom educators to consider the materials below or where appropriate, share the materials with parents.   GIS activities for elementary students Upper Elementary GeoInquiries GIS Day comic/coloring book (zip file download) Coloring sheets (zip) Thinking Spatially with GIS (worksheets) What's your favorite color? (project) Mapping a book GIS activities for high school students Explore cool maps Online course: Get to Know GIS for Secondary Students Online short course: ArcGIS Online Basics Teach with GIS activities GeoInquiry activities For other support resources for K12 schools during COVID-19, see this blog post. Post other activities in a reply below! Header image: Grand Prismatic, Yellowstone.  Esri Imagery basemap. ... View more

You can now browse or search for GeoInquiries in the new hub at: https://geoinquiries-education.hub.arcgis.com This interface is not intended to replace other ways of accessing this content, simply to provide an experience that uses the latest tools from Esri. ArcGIS Hub (basic) is included with the free schools software mapping bundle. ... View more

GeoProjects are short tutorials and demonstrations designed to help educators envision and create their own project-based learning (PBL) experiences.  GeoProjects use Survey123, Collector, or QuickCapture so that students can collect and submit data on a topic of teacher or student interest - from the field or from the safety of home.   The GeoProjects hub contains two key areas: GeoProject starters – short tutorials and pre-built demos using Esri data collection tools, on a range of disciplinary topics. We are currently adding more starters.  If you would like to create and share a starter, please email it to [email protected] Registry and idea explorer – a place for educators to share ideas about projects that involve data collection. The projects can be real, just a dream, or anywhere in between.  Share you geoproject now.   Explore the GeoProjects Hub >> ... View more