Latest Contributions by TomBaker

Just in time for Genealogy Day,  March 11, 2023! The Esri K12 program and the AncestryClassroom™ team (formerly AncestryK12) are working together to offer a new StoryMap, intended to guide K12 students through their family’s data from the 1950 census.  Census records are released in full detail after 72 years, and the 1950 U.S. Federal Census was released in April of 2022. Unlike data GIS users often see, these data are not aggregated by some unit of geography, but are focused on individuals and their household.  These data include names of residents (including children) living in the home, occupation, birth place, age, race, gender, and more.  This project utilizes AncestryClassroom™, a free Ancestry® resource for K-12 schools with billions of searchable historical records. For more than a decade, AncestryClassroom has provided educators with access to educational resources and Ancestry® record collections at no cost to help students find their personal place in history. Educators and school administrators can click here to sign up for access to AncestryClassroom at no cost.   The project asks students to find a relative living in the United States in 1950 as documented in the census.  Classrooms submit the address of their relative to a Survey123 form.  The result is a map of families’ movement between 1950 and today.  The resulting map also underscores where people lived within a community 73 years ago.  The pattern of movement in small towns and rural areas may look very different from the patterns in suburbs or urban areas.  The project map includes a dashboard with all the contributed data from students – allowing learners to compare and contrast their community’s changes with others.  This project is designed as a “GeoProject”, a short, data collection and analysis activity built around a theme.  Several other GeoProjects, on a wide range of themes, are available from Esri staff and external collaborators.  See all of the GeoProjects at https://esriurl.com/geoprojects Explore the GeoProject.  >> ... View more

Be sure to drop by the Esri booth #1132 in the exhibits area at the 2023 Conference on Science Education in Atlanta, GA.  We’re in the middle of the hall, adjacent to the large “Birds of a Feather” area.   We’re looking forward to reconnecting after being away for the last four years.  We’re also on the lookout for NSTA member presentations that include ArcGIS, like Zakhia Grant’s “Mobilizing Student Changemakers through Data, Technology, and Student Innovation” (Friday, March 24, 1:20 PM - 2:20 PM) Lacey Huffling’s talk on “How Earth’s Water is a Community Well: Using ArcGIS Storymaps and Citizen Science to Make a Case” (Saturday, March 25, 9:30 AM - 10:00 AM). Search for more session at NSTA. Esri also plans to offer three free vendor workshops. Day and times will be added to this blog, when available. Using PASCO Sensors to collect data for ArcGIS Maps - Join Esri as we demonstrate how to use data sensors from PASCO to collect and push data into ArcGIS Online mapping software. Among other measures, we will assess ground-level CO2 and correlate it to temperature in a map display. We will also analyze the mapped data. ArcGIS Online is free to K-12 classroom instructional use, globally. Creating great stories and portfolios using ArcGIS StoryMaps - StoryMaps allow students to combine text, photos, videos, audio, and maps into a coherent story for communicating research or findings of a study. Join the Esri education team as we explore creating storymaps in the classroom. StoryMaps are a part of the ArcGIS School Bundle, free for K12 classroom instruction. Making powerful maps with professional or  student-collected data - Join Esri as we demonstrate how to build powerful, analytical maps using ArcGIS Online. We will use scientific data from the Living Atlas and data created during the workshop using Survey123 – and map it all. Analysis tools will be demonstrated. ArcGIS Online is free from Esri for K12 classroom instruction. Workshops times are slated for Saturday, March 25, 2023: * 9-10 am * 10:20-11:20 am * 1:20 – 2:20 pm If you have questions about Esri at NSTA 2023, please email [email protected] .   ... View more

  The Esri Teacher Video Challenge is entering its 7th year.  With over 45 K-12 and informal educators interviewed about GIS teaching, the collection of winning videos tells a great story of success with GIS across grade bands and disciplines. Explore some of the winners today at https://esriurl.com/TVC  If you are a US K-12 educator, consider submitting your own video entry to the competition.   Fortune and glory await the monthly winner! ... View more

Puzzles pique our curiosity, feed our need to explore, and on occasion, have us pulling out our hair.  For the GIS teacher or student, “GIS puzzles” will check all these boxes – and more. Introduced by Charlie Fitzpatrick over 25 years ago, the puzzles below have been moved into ArcGIS Online and updated where necessary.  The puzzles provide clues and data layers for finding a special location on the planet.     While every puzzle is different, teachers may want to note whether a convergent answer is available for the puzzle.  Such answers can either be in the form of a city name or a latitude-longitude.  In the case of lat-longs, we pad the acceptable responses by a degree or two on both the latitude and longitude. At this time, the puzzles include: Returning Raster (answer: automated check of lat-long) The Lost City of Franklin Shaw (answer: automated check of city name) The Case of the Missing Ship (answer: automated check of lat-long) Wandering Juan’s Treasure (no posted answer) The Left-handed Chocolate Caper (republished by B. Duke) Magic Dan’s Extreme Sea and Ski Resort (answer: automated check of city name) Bigfoot’s Brother  (no posted answer) Clark Louis’ Bad Adventure (no posted answer) The puzzles are listed in order of difficulty – where keen middle school students could certainly tackle the earlier puzzles.  Since the puzzles have maps displayed in the map viewer, turning layers on/off, changing symbology, filtering, measuring and more are accessible.     http://esriurl.com/puzzles   ... View more

Edison robots for classrooms Full workflow in this storymap. "EdMats" are designed for students to have on their desk or table while working with a robot. EdMats  feature a prominent, solid black line - usually in a circular shape - for practicing "line tracking" with a robot. According to the meetEdison website, the black, solid lines should be at least 1.5 cm thick for the line tracking sensor to work. The lines can be drawn with a very large marker or students can use black electrical tape for fictional maps for their robots. The attached storymap outlines the process I used for creating a real map of real streets for my Edison robot to follow.  The same basic workflow should work with any robotics kit that supports line tracking. Learn how to build it!   ... View more

From middle school to graduate school, microcontrollers have been growing in popularity over the past five to ten years.  Especially visible in STEM, Maker, CTE, and computer science classrooms, these affordable little devices can often act as automated GIS data collectors – reporting environmental data like temperature, humidity, sound levels, and proximity warnings.  With a little bit of code, microcontrollers can pass that data back to a waiting feature service in ArcGIS Online.   I’ve created a collection of workflows for using various microcontrollers (and one microcomputer) to collect temperature data and report that data automatically to ArcGIS Online.  Each workflow includes a description of the process, some sample code (various languages), and a sample Survey123 feature service. The following is an overview of the current collection. Submitting data…. : Walks through the basic code for sending simple, POST data to a feature service.  This Python code is the basis for most of the remaining microcontroller examples.  It can also be used in any Python 3.x environment to send data to ArcGIS Online.    The Raspberry Pi microcomputer can natively run Python and has pins for plugging in sensors (like the DHT22 temperature sensor).  While a Raspberry Pi is the most expensive (about $65 US) of the devices discussed here, it is also the most flexible.  It can even act as a desktop computer, if needed. The BBC micro:bit is a microcontroller with several built-in sensors – and it’s built for student learning. In the micro:bit workflow, I leave the device attached to a computer for transmitting temperature data over the USB cable – to an awaiting Python script that pushes the micro:bit data into ArcGIS Online. The Adafruit Circuit Playground Express is a microcontroller with several built-in sensors.  It’s very similar to the micro:bit and the workflow outlined is the same one used by micro:bit.  Why this controller?  It’s more popular in the Maker space in the US and in my opinion, has a strong community base and lots of sample code on the web. I really like the support for Circuit Python on this device! Adafruit Feather running Arduino Sketches is the last microcontroller that I’ve included in this initial collection.  As its name suggests, the Feather is very small and light, making it a great candidate for attaching to moving things (kites, bikes, dogs, etc).  The Feather model in this workflow also has a built-in WiFi card, allowing for simpler deployment anywhere within your school’s network.  Like the Raspberry Pi, this microcontroller required an external sensor to be attached.  Unlike any of the other workflows on the list, this device uses Arduino Sketches to program the controller – to connect to wifi, to read the sensor, and to transmit the data. I’ve included a hardware list in each workflow to help you get started, but beware.  The workflows above aren’t complete enough to take you from “zero to hero”.  Be ready to do some outside reading if you’re not already familiar with these tools. Lastly, the sky is the limit.  Whether you want to create a sensor network to monitor microclimates, noise levels within your school, or nighttime ambient light levels in the neighborhood, some combination of microcontrollers and sensors will probably help you meet your automated data collection needs – at a modest price. Start your exploration! ... View more

  “Over half (of respondents) have never owned a passport.” [source] “Nearly 1 in 6 people have never traveled outside their own state.” [source] Learning may be seldom benefitted by the walls of a classroom.  Today, with increasing staff shortages, rising insurance and transportation costs, epidemic/pandemic viruses, and limited time, getting outside of the classroom is increasingly difficult.  This becomes even more apparent when getting out of the classroom means traveling to a new place (near or far). Classroom field trips are few and far between today. Furthermore, this inability to experience new places doesn’t necessarily self-correct as we age. The resurgence of Virtual Reality (VR) seems to be fueled by the marketing and technical pushes of the larger “metaverse”.  Part of this advancement is evident in the increased number of manufacturers producing VR headsets (e.g. Apple, Meta Cambria, PlayStation 5, Pimax, Somnium Space) and VR content (e.g. Facebook/Meta, YouTube, Insta360).  Using VR to create virtual classroom field trips is not new. One example of this was the launch of Google Cardboard in 2014 (now open sourced).  A Little History Google Cardboard is basically a box that an Android-based (or iOS) smartphone could rest in.  Remember “ViewMasters”?  The Cardboard has two eye pieces and when stereoscopic content designed for consumption in the cardboard was viewed, it appeared to be “immersive” and viewable in 360 degrees.  For classrooms, it was a hit, if the classroom had the wireless networks and a class set of Android devices to view the content.   At that time, creating VR content was not really easy – creating the second “pain point” for massive adoption of the tech. Over the last decade, newer 360 degree cameras have emerged (e.g. Insta360, Ricoh, GoPro) that are relatively simple to use yet powerful and affordable.  These 360 degree cameras take pictures and video using an equirectangular format – that when viewed in Google Cardboard or an Oculus/Facebook/Meta style VR headset would again render an “immersive” image or video, viewable in all directions. A sense of place An image or video can describe a place like no other media.  Maybe your students will read 1,000 words about a tall-grass prairie biome (they probably won’t) but imagine using immersive 360 degree imagery alongside a map.  Use text minimally to identify key features or to explain a concept the image alone just doesn’t illustrate.  Now, add a few more 360 degree images from a few more carefully selected locations in the tall grass prairie – that students can navigate to by map or image.    Remember, these images are spherical – they’re immersive with a VR headset – and many 360 degree images can be served up to the learner with background sound or narration.  This blend of map, 360 degree imagery and video, 3D models (from CityEngine for example), and sound put the learner as close to being in the real space as possible today – without the cost, time, liability, or paperwork of leaving the four walls.  I wouldn’t for a moment argue this is as good as getting kids into a tall grass prairie for an afternoon, but realistically, it offers a sense of place that textbooks alone can’t offer. StoryMap VR expeditions On the Esri Education Team, we’ve been exploring the blending of these media with maps. While there are only a dozen or so “expeditions” today, explore one of them.  Most of the media will also render perfectly fine on a tablet or Chromebook, students just will not feel “immersed”.    View the growing StoryMaps VR expeditions at:  https://esriurl.com/expeditions     If you have a360 degree camera and would like to produce a virtual field trip (or get an existing field trip listed), please email me at [email protected] ... View more

Google Slides is a notoriously “closed” environment for assembling live content from around the web. As long as you don’t want to add anything other than an image, audio file, or video, you’re fine. Forget about 3D objects or anything interactive (like a map).  It’s just not happening (as of August 2022).   For better or worse, Google Slides is very popular in K-12 and higher education for presentations.  It does have some useful features like its price point (cheap/free) and ability to share natively on the web. (It’s probably a good time to mention that StoryMaps make a great presentation tool for classrooms.) So for those who want/need to use Google Slides but still use powerful and compelling content from ArcGIS Online, I offer three ways to increase the exposure of GIS content. 1. Screen shot and link All computers and devices are capable taking “screen shots”.  Screen shots usually create an image file (JPG or PNG) of all or part of a desktop.  That image can then be dropped into many applications – including Google Slides.  Benefits: fast, easy, free Downsides: You have to figure out how your computer takes screenshots, produces static images Sample: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MS5NSbKVbtLShlvzrV2e3Bin_SJWXUkuj-n3LbfqHv0/edit?usp=sharing   2. Screen record a video of interacting with a map This may seem silly at first but consider that recording your screen (while possibly talking) lets you stick to a script, record when you know the map is working, and freezes what might be a data visualization with dynamic data.  There are several tools to create screen recordings, including Apple QuickTime, YouTube, Loom, Microsoft Stream, or built-in iOS app. Benefits: Like a screenshot, screen recording content is frozen forever. Prerecorded video in Google Slides is great for students not in class or reviewing. Downside: Video may need edited and must be posted somewhere, like YouTube.  The content will also become data. Sample: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1f2aDoaGY-d4_fdwvncvF0DCQK2Yi5yc9QAOcZPQwOq4/edit?usp=sharing   3. Embed the Google Slides into an ArcGIS Dashboard or StoryMap Just because you can’t embed a GIS map in Google Slides, doesn’t mean you can’t embed Google Slides in an ArcGIS application like Dashboard or StoryMaps. While these approaches take a little extra work to set up, the interactive map content can be presented along with Google Slides. This can be very useful when the map content is live and rapidly changing. Benefits: See the map and presentation at the same time. The map can persist across multiple slides used to describe it. In the sample below, the Google Slide deck was “Published to the web” (under File).  Use the “Embed” option. You can ignore the iframe code and just grab the URL provided.  Paste that Google Slide URL into the embed widget of the dashboard or storymap. Note the presentation will auto-play, but can be paused for your instruction. Downside: Time: You’ll need to set-up a dashboard or storymap and add an embed widget – which is where the published Google Slide deck will reside.  Sample: https://www.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/c701d3741b004609883e53b08a9f1946     ... View more

Minecraft has been growing in popularity over the past several years in K12 education.  This growth accelerated when Microsoft acquired the 3D adventure game in 2014.  In this blog, I’ll walk through some of the steps to posting Minecraft created objects in ArcGIS Online. My Minecraft 3D floating null island (0.0 lat, 0.0 long) example. We’ll post a floating null island, created in Minecraft, and shared into ArcGIS Online  (viewed through Scene viewer). Review Microsoft’s directions for exporting 3D objects from Minecraft (this process may vary depending on your game's platform). For this blog, we downloaded a pre-built Minecraft object (an island).  Imported the object into CityEngine. Exported as an Esri Scene Layer Pack - and then uploaded and shared as a hosted service in ArcGIS Online.  This workflow is outlined here. The only differences in workflow for this null island: We used a blank scene in CityEngine.  We did not use map data or 3D buildings.  Using a blank scene sets the origin at 0,0 (null). In CityEngine, I wanted my island to float in the sky.  So I used the moved tool to elevate the island.  I mean if you’re going to create your own island, what better way to make it private than to make it float in the sky? Don’t forget the Scene viewer can be used in StoryMaps.  Using the Sidecar widget also allows you to use Map Actions, which can allow a student to show off aspects of their creation. A brief example is here. Of course, students could also create “Slides” inside the Scene Viewer and achieve similar effects.  What’s more, with Slides in Scene Viewer, students could export their null island Scene into the ArcGIS 360 VR Viewer (ideal for VR headsets, like Oculus). Example components: The null island hosted feature service The null island scene viewer (with slides) The null island storymap The null island ArcGIS 360 VR viewer ... View more

While adding 3D buildings from OpenStreetMap is an incredible tool for adding contextual data to your web scene, not all "buildings" are reasonably represented.  Consider non-standard objects in the built environment: monuments, ships, even baseball stadiums are not currently represented well. To the left, is Ellis Island (home of the Statue of Liberty - also the Green Goddess, Lady on a Pedestal, and Mother of Freedom) with only OpenStreetMap 3D buildings.  The monument pedestal is present but not the monument. To improve this, we can download a 3D model from SketchFab, add it to CityEngine, and ultimately publish a hosted scene layer.  That scene layer contains the Statue of Liberty and can be added to anyone's ArcGIS Online 3D Scene. The remainder of this blog presents one workflow to achieve this result. Workflow Head over to SketchFab and download a free model of interest that includes CC licensing.  This link goes to a preset search for the Statue Of Liberty. Download the model. Almost any format is fine but I tend to download OBJ, FBX, or Collada formatted models. Create a new CityEngine project - based on real map data.  Run through the defaults and pick the geography where you want to place your 3D model.  In my case, my CityEngine project was of and around Ellis Island, New York. In CItyEngine, use "Import" to add your 3D object. The object will display in your CityEngine project.  Select the object and use the move tool to carefully and as accurately as possible, nudge the object into the space it belongs. Save your CityEngine project. At this point, I turn off all layers, except my 3D model. Go to the Export Models tool. CityEngine allows for export to an Esri Scene Layer.  Remember where you have saved the file. Login to your ArcGIS Online account (with at least publisher level permissions). Add the item.  Go to Content -> New Item button -> From Device. Add appropriate title and metadata. When prompted, add the file and create a hosted scene layer.  When published, I recommend sharing the hosted scene service publicly.  Be sure to complete the metadata and upload an appropriate thumbnail. Start a new Scene viewer (3D) map.  Add you new hosted feature service.  You can also add "OpenStreetMap 3D buildings".  If you end up with data from the OSM layer instructing your 3D model, you can use a spatial filter to hide the object as outlined in this blog. (Expand the image to the right to see the spatial join window and obstructed 3D model.)   Resources My Statue of Liberty hosted scene layer can be seen here. A Statue of Liberty map with the 3D model and surrounding buildings can be seen here. Mt Rushmore:  Model | Map USS Midway aircraft carrier: Model | StoryMap From CityEngine, you can also export the project into a single OBJ 3D model and publish it to SketchFab, as I did here (USS Midway).               ... View more