Latest Contributions by TomBaker

Deep in a densely wooded state forest in Virginia lies the ghost of a once-thriving community named Lucyville. For decades, Lucyville’s story remained buried, known only from fragmented memories and scattered records. But thanks to the curiosity and dedication of a group of middle school students, Lucyville’s legacy is being rediscovered and celebrated. Read the story >>   ... View more

One of the most powerful features in Esri’s 3D viewers, like Scene and MapMaker is the Daylight tool – at least in my opinion. The Daylight tool creates a light source (sun) on the map and results in accurate lighting levels for the selected date and time. You can use the play button to cycle through the lighting levels by time or date. For example, here’s the Grand Canyon at about 7 am on March 15, 1952.    You can move beyond ambient lighting and generate accurate shadows of topography and 3D objects, like buildings.   Here to, you can set shadows to generate for a specific time and date.  You can also use the play buttons to loop the shadow render by date or time. See the shadow of the Space Needle in Seattle at about noon during the 1995 Winter Solstice.   For a little extra credit, if you want to capture movement of shadows across an entire and present it in a short enough span of time to keep student attention, you can do a few screen recordings on your computer and stitch together in a video editor – and you’ll get something like this. YouTube video link To learn more about the Daylight tool, see: MapMaker skill builder #9: Simulate daylight and weather Documentation: Simulated daylight and weather Scene Viewer: Daylight tips Teachers, looking for the Next Generation science standards connections? Kindergarten standard: K-PS3-1 Kids notice that sunlight warms things. This is where they first start paying attention to the Sun in the sky. Grade 1 standard: 1-ESS1-1 Students observe that the Sun, Moon, and stars move across the sky. This includes noticing that the Sun is in different places during the day. Grade 3 standard: 3-ESS2-1 Kids learn that Earth’s rotation causes day and night. This helps explain why shadows move as the Sun appears to move. Middle School standard: MS-ESS1-1 Students use models to explain: Earth’s tilt, Earth going around the Sun, and seasons, * changing Sun angle, day length, etc. High School (grades 9-12) Standard: HS-ESS1-1 Develop a model based on evidence to illustrate the life span of the Sun and the role of nuclear fusion. Establishes the Sun as the energy source for Earth Supports understanding solar radiation, which affects: Sun angle, Shadow length, Seasonal heating Standard: HS-ESS1-4 Use mathematical or computational representations to predict the motion of orbiting objects in the solar system. Earth’s orbit around the Sun Earth’s tilt (23.5°) Standard: HS-ESS2-4 Use a model to describe how variations in the flow of energy into and out of Earth’s systems result in changes in climate. Standard: HS-ESS2-2 Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth’s surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems. Indirect support: Ice/snow cover, Albedo (reflection), seasonal feedbacks ... View more

Start planning now to join the Esri schools team this April 16-18 in Anaheim, CA at the annual meeting of the  National Science Teachers Association.  While you can find us in the exhibit hall in booth 1420, we also have a few workshops planned. Time and location to follow. Workshops: 1. Add GIS mapping tools to enhance learning (room 304b; April 17th at 10:40am) Geographic maps (GIS) are powerful tools for visualizing and analyzing scientific data from the schoolyard to the planet. Learn how to use no-cost, no login tools from Esri to explore and understand data using our new tools, including the National Geographic MapMaker. Learn to use 3D data and sketching to improve the map. 2. Enhance field studies with location, analysis, and story-telling (room 304b, April 18th at 9:00am) Ready to set up a new outdoor data collection project for your students? This workshop will show you how to use three GIS tools in the ArcGIS school bundle to collect, map, analyze, and report on data collected. The workshop will feature StoryMaps and Survey123 to help support your project-based learning (PBL) and field studies instruction.   We will continue to update this blog post with more activities and details as we near the meeting.  See you in Anaheim! ... View more

Using AI in K–12 education has pros and cons. On the positive side, AI can personalize learning, giving students help at their own pace. It can support teachers by saving time on grading and lesson planning. AI tools can also make learning more engaging and accessible for students with special needs. However, there are concerns. Too much reliance on AI may reduce critical thinking and creativity. Data privacy and student safety are also major issues.  Esri offers two basic types of AI tools: GeoAI and AI Assistants. GeoAI combines geographic information systems (GIS) technology with machine learning to analyze spatial data. It helps find patterns, make predictions, and support decisions about places, such as detecting land-use change, mapping risk, or analyzing traffic and climate data. AI Assistants focus on helping users work more efficiently. They use natural language to answer questions, explain data, generate maps, write code, or guide users through GIS tasks. Together, GeoAI powers advanced spatial analysis, while AI Assistants make GIS easier to use and understand. Common GeoAI tools fall into a few well-established categories: Image classification and object detection: AI identifies features such as buildings, roads, trees, or land cover from satellite, aerial, or drone imagery.  See a short video demo.    Predictive modeling: Machine learning predicts outcomes like flood risk, wildfire spread, crime hotspots, traffic patterns, or population growth based on spatial data. Spatial clustering and pattern detection: AI finds hidden patterns, hot spots, or anomalies in geographic data, helping explain where and why things happen. Change detection: AI compares imagery over time to detect land-use change, deforestation, urban growth, or disaster damage. Natural language GIS assistants: AI tools let users ask questions, build maps, write GIS code, or analyze data using everyday language. Automation and feature extraction: AI speeds up repetitive GIS tasks like digitizing features, cleaning data, and updating maps. As of January 2026, Esri provides several AI assistants across its ecosystem, primarily in Beta or Preview stages. These assistants utilize generative AI to streamline GIS workflows, code generation, and documentation search. ArcGIS Pro Assistant ArcGIS Arcade Assistant ArcGIS Business Analyst Assistant ArcGIS Survey123 Assistant ArcGIS StoryMaps Assistants ArcGIS Hub Assistant ArcGIS for Teams Assistant ArcGIS Instant Apps  Assistant Documentation Assistant Item Details Assistant To learn more about specific uses of educational applications of AI in GIS, take a look at some of these blog posts from Esri higher education and K12 team members. Use images & AI to fill out a survey   What teachers should know about AI in ArcGIS StoryMaps No Need to Teach Your Students Anymore – Spatial AI Assistants are Here! How to get started with GeoAI in ArcGIS - A practical guide ... View more

  Growing up in the 70's and 80's, each holiday season, I awaited the arrival of the NBC special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. It is a 1964 stop-motion show about Rudolph and his adventures, including a stop at the Island of the Misfit Toys. This holiday season, we are sharing our GIS adventure puzzle, Finding the Island of Misfit Toys - a storymap with an instant app of the Arctic. The puzzle begins to let students use clues to narrow in on the likely location of the famous imaginary island. Explore this geographic puzzle and others at https://esriurl.com/puzzles     Learn about the Esri Schools program. ... View more

Mappy Halloween! is an interactive ArcGIS StoryMap activity where students explore real-world places with spooky names—like Ghost Ranch and Witch’s Canyon—while building mapping and critical-thinking skills. Designed for middle and high schoolers, the activity connects geography, culture, and storytelling through a map-based interface that highlights how place names reflect legend and creativity. This StoryMap reinforces concepts such as spatial patterns and human-environment interaction, making it ideal for introducing toponymy or practicing digital mapping. Teachers can use it for fall lesson plans, Halloween-themed days, or as a fun way to show that maps tell stories beyond navigation. Students may work alone or in groups to investigate eerie locations, compare naming trends, or create their own haunted maps. Whether teaching geography, Earth science, or cultural studies, Mappy Halloween! offers engaging learning with a seasonal twist. Explore the StoryMap here: Mappy Halloween!. ref StoryMap: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/e9035a73ceaa47318ce681341def5f4a ... View more

Many Earth science teachers begin teaching freshwater units in early fall.  Usually these investigations cover at least the flow of freshwater in the water cycle, paying attention to  rivers, lakes, and streams.   Explore how rivers and streams flow to the sea—connecting local landscapes to some of the planet’s most iconic waterways. Explore how topography and gravity shape river systems. Measure elevation changes, trace tributaries, and analyze how watersheds connect land, water, and life.  Inspire students to see rivers not just as natural features, but as lifelines of ecosystems, cultures, and communities. Dive in and let curiosity flow—one watershed at a time.   Resources: MapMaker activity: Where rivers run Mapmaker activity: Is water really running out? Map Viewer GeoInquiry: A river runs through it App: The water balance app – see how the water balance in a place is changing over time. App: Drought Aware – near real-time, local to national maps and analyses Data: Live stream gauge data for use in Map Viewer or ArcGIS Pro ... View more

Managed by the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Litzsinger Road Ecology Center (LREC) is a beacon of growth for students in the Saint Louis, Missouri, metropolitan area.   Dr. Bob Coulter, a former classroom teacher and the center’s director, has had a long commitment to educational innovation. In the late 1990s while he was still working in classrooms, he taught an elementary curriculum codeveloped by the Missouri Botanical Garden called What’s It Like Where You Live? As Coulter explained, “We want students to deepen their understanding of what’s outside of their window. For instance, how does the local temperature and precipitation enable certain plants and animals to survive? With this, how are the plants and animals adapted for these conditions? Equipped with these perspectives, students can compare local, distant, and future ecosystems.” Read more about Bob's amazing adventures with kids and GIS. +++++   Learn more about GIS in the instruction of youth in ecology and environmental science with activities from Esri: Climate shaping cultures Farming and the rural landscape National parks and public lands and more!   +++++   ... View more

Teaching topography and topographic maps are important in Earth science and physical geography; it builds a foundation for understanding how the surface of the Earth shapes natural processes, ecosystems, and human activity. For this reason, topography is often taught at the beginning of Earth science and geography courses - in September!   Explore three different teaching activities to help teach topography using GIS maps. 1. Exploring topographic features (with MapMaker) https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/08021f4b5b554cf69f0dc2e360173fd7 Explore topography in 2D and 3D while using the elevation profile tool to examine elevation. No account or login required. Time to complete: Two class periods. 2. VR: Topography and our natural heritage https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/bb4795fa2aea4885b1d31c8bbb5863ce No virtual reality hardware required!  Explore topography in this simple activity that uses Yosemite National Park. No account or login required. Time to complete: 20 minutes. 3. Topography and our natural heritage (with Map Viewer) https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=e3ada52bdc7149829b71d16c33841b54 The topographic GeoInquirry from Esri using the modern map viewer. No account or login required. Time to complete: About 15 minutes. +++++ Other mapping tools and their potential use: Historical topo map explorer The Historical Topo Map Explorer provides a visual way to search and explore the USGS topographic map collection via geographic extent, publication year, and map scale. https://livingatlas.arcgis.com/topomapexplorer/#maps=&loc=-98.54,40.15&LoD=4.00   ... View more

In most schools, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is hotly debated and frequently regulated by school district policy.  With the addition of AI Assistants to the ArcGIS platform, there’s no better time to know how to enable or disable AI Assistants and understand the capacities of the tools. As of this writing, AI Assistants must be enabled by an ArcGIS Online Organization administrator.  When enabled, all AI Assistants are available to all users in the organization. To check your organization, login with an admin account and click Organization >> Settings >> AI Assistant.  By default, AI Assistants are turned off.  Also note that while this blog focuses on the four AI Assistants in StoryMaps, there are several AI Assistants now available across multiple Esri tools. During July of 2025, Esri announced the addition of four new AI Assistants for ArcGIS StoryMaps.  AI Assistants use large language models to create or alter text. They are generative AI. These four StoryMap AI Assistants are: Insights assistant — located in the About this story section of the Insights panel, this provides some metrics and indicators that can be used to help define, describe, and quantify your story. Accessibility assistant — found in the Accessibility tab of the options for images that are added to a story. It uses AI to generate suggested alt text for the image. Writing assistant — part of the text formatting toolbar when a chunk of text is highlighted. It uses AI to make the designated text clearer, more concise, grammatically correct, and/or fit one of four general “tones”. Theme assistant — appears as one of the initial starting point options when creating a new theme. It responds to a written prompt by generating a theme with some color and font selections already made (text from W. Hackney). >>> Read more about these tools in William Hackney’s post. For classroom teachers, there are a handful of key take-aways to understand. The new Insights AI Assistant and panel will calculate the Flesh-Kincaid grade readability score of a storymap you have created.  It will also estimate reading time for a typical adult. Each of these metrics can be invaluable for teachers creating storymaps. The Writing AI Assistant can improve but also generate written text, if prompted properly. If a student writes: “The bear gracefully walked through the creek”, the AI Assistant can rewrite, correct grammar, or change the tone of the sentence. “Write a paragraph about a bear walking through a stream”, the AI Assistant will generate the requested new paragraph when asked to “Rephrase” the text. All AI Assistants are either available to all users in the organization or turned off for everyone.  This means there is currently no option to allow teachers access but disallow student access. To learn about workflows, security, AI bias and more, see the Esri documentation. The AI Assistants in StoryMaps are a powerful addition to the story-telling tools. Be sure you understand the capacities and nuances of these AI tools moving forward.   ... View more

What is an ArcGIS Public account? An ArcGIS public account is a free account that is available for individuals to create and share content with limits on usage. This free, limited-functionality account gives you permanent access to create and share basic maps. It's intended for personal, non-commercial use. Using a public account, you can: Create, store, and manage maps, scenes, layers, apps, and other geospatial content. Share content with others. Access content shared by Esri and GIS users around the world. Since MapMaker is an ArcGIS Online app, you can use your ArcGIS Public account to save and share maps. What’s the catch? ArcGIS Online public accounts can only be created by adults!  So, public accounts are great for teachers wanting to make and share maps with students. Example scenario Ms. Johnson, a second grade teacher goes to MapMaker and opens a map she likes.  She moves the map and zooms in to her community and turns off one layer she doesn’t feel her students need. Ms. Johnson presses the Save button and selects “Save a Map” – which prompts her to login.  Using her public account, she then saves a map file to her ArcGIS Online Public account and sets the sharing to “Everyone”.  She is then able to copy and paste her map’s URL into her school’s LMS where the students can interact with the new map. How to set up an ArcGIS public account Use a service like Google, Apple, or Facebook to create your ArcGIS Public account.  Your name and email address are provided by the selected service.  Pro: This method is fast to create – and fast to login later!  Con: You may want to use a different email address with ArcGIS Online than the one provided by the third-party. See a demonstration video.  Create a new, standard public ArcGIS Online account.  Pro: You control all submitted information for the profile. Con: It’s a little slower to set-up. Save you username and password to your browser to speed up subsequent logins.  Use your new public account with MapMaker Head over to MapMaker, here. Press the “Save” button. Click “Sign in”. Click the “Sign in” button. (This should pop open a new browser window.) Once signed in, the Save panel will show your profile (see below). You are now ready to save maps or open your saved maps.   ... View more

Join Esri at the annual meeting of the National Council for Geographic Education in Omaha, October 17-19. We will be exhibiting and sharing new instructional activities, Esri Press books, and the latest enhancements to our software.  Look for the Esri lab room on Saturday, October 18th. You’ll find sessions on a variety of software and instructional materials. Below is a daft schedule for the Esri BYOD lab in the Missouri room. Instructors include: Anita Palmer, Joseph Kerski, Charlie Fitzpatrick and Tom Baker. 8:00 - Introduction to National Geographic MapMaker 9:00 - Physical geography activities for the classroom 10:00 - Introduction to StoryMaps for Teachers 11:00 – Creating StoryMaps - intermediate techniques 1:00 - APHG resources from National Geographic Learning 2:00 - Utilizing National Geographic Learning resources: World Cultures 3:00 - Map Viewer - Basic map making 4:00 – Designing projects with Survey123 Learn more about the NCGE conference here.   ... View more

Throughout his career, Chris Bunin has specialized in teaching geography, AP Human Geography, and history. Embracing innovation to keep students engaged, he has moved away from traditional worksheets and textbooks, integrating GIS technology into his lessons.   But Bunin’s journey with GIS began unexpectedly. “I stumbled across GIS and fell in love with it,” he said. Initially unsure about his career path, he discovered his passion for teaching and mentoring while working at youth summer camps. During his social studies teacher training, he took a mapping course that introduced him to Esri’s ArcGIS software, which he found particularly engaging. Read the full article. >> ... View more

As I outlined in the May 5 2025 blog, the summer migration of GeoInquiries is complete and reflects the specifics presented in that blog.  If you have questions or concerns moving forward, please don't hesitate to email [email protected] Please also note that you can directly explore the state of each GeoInquiry from the Getting to Know GeoInquiries storymap. ... View more