GIS EDUCATORS DAY - Northeast Arc Users Group

G I S E D U C A T O R S D A Y
S u n d a y , N o v e m b e r 1 1
Agenda-at-a-Glance
9:00 a.m. –
9:30 a.m.
9:00 a.m. –
9:30 a.m.
9:30 a.m. –
9:45 a.m.
Meeting
Room
10:00 a.m. –
11:00 a.m.
Registration – Sidewalk Lobby Level
Continental Breakfast – Third Floor Area
Welcome Remarks & Introduction/ Overview of the Day – Auditorium
HANDS-ON WORKSHOPS ORAL PRESENTATIONS ORAL PRESENTATIONS
Katherine Aldridge Tucker Room Auditorium Washington Street Room
Introduction to Web Mapping
1. Using GIS to Study the Great
Bangor Fire of 1911
2. Production & Consumption:
The Give and Take of Energy-
A Lesson Using ArcGIS Online
1. Enhancing Engagement in
Geospatial Topics Through
Authentic Learning
2. GIS and Service Learning –
An Almost Perfect Marriage
HANDS-ON WORKSHOPS PANEL PRESENTATIONS PANEL PRESENTATIONS
11:10 a.m. –
12:10 p.m.
ArcGIS Online: Personal vs.
Organization Accounts
ArcGIS Online Activities for K12
Thinking About Spatial Literacy
in Education
12:15 p.m. –
12:45 p.m.
12:45 p.m. –
1:30 p.m.
Lunch – Third Floor Area
Keynote Address – Auditorium
Dr. Matthew Bampton, University of Southern Maine
Spatial Adventures: Undergraduate Research Experiences in the Field and Laboratory
HANDS-ON WORKSHOPS PANEL PRESENTATIONS ORAL PRESENTATIONS
1:30 p.m. –
2:30 p.m.
Adding GPS Data to
ArcGIS Online
The Road to a K-12 Statewide
Esri License in New Hampshire
1. Involving Undergraduate
Students in GIS Research: The
Bringing Broadband to North
Central MA Project
2:40 p.m. –
3:40 p.m.
3:45 p.m. –
4:00 p.m.
Publishing Content to
ArcGIS Online
GIS Educators Day Wrap-up & Prizes – Auditorium
2. GIS and a Sense of Place
1. 1. Living in the GIS World as a
MAC User
What Do Employers Want
The 21 st Century Geospatial
2. 2. Intra-university Collaborations:
Workforce
An Experiment in Classroom-
Facilities Cooperation
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SESSION ABSTRACTS
Hands-on Workshops
Introduction to Web Mapping
Lyn Malone, WORLD VIEWS Spatial Technologies for Education
Using ArcGIS Online, anyone can easily create high-quality, interactive maps that can be accessed from web
browsers, mobile devices, e-mail, and popular social media sites. This workshop will walk you through the processes
of finding free data and maps in ArcGIS Online, creating interactive maps to suit your needs, saving your maps,
and sharing maps and data with others.
ArcGIS Online: Personal vs. Organization Accounts
Charlie Fitzpatrick, Esri Schools Program Manager
How do ArcGIS Online’s new subscription accounts for organizations differ from the free personal accounts
Workshop participants will explore, practice, and compare the functionality and capabilities of each mode to
better understand available alternatives for meeting their own mapping needs.
Adding GPS Data to ArcGIS Online
Tora Johnson, Micheal Oram – University of Maine at Machias
In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn how to collect data in the field using GPS receivers and map the
data on ArcGIS Online. The process is easy and works with Mac or Windows operating systems. We'll offer
instructions, tips and tricks, and online resources to help you get started collecting field data with your students.
Publishing Content to ArcGIS Online
Charlie Fitzpatrick, Esri Schools Program Manager
Esri is expanding ArcGIS Online to give organizations the ability to manage their geospatial content and publish
their maps, apps, data, and hosted services in Esri's cloud infrastructure. In this workshop, you will learn how to
publish maps and data directly to ArcGIS Online, then access those map services from different components of the
ArcGIS system. The presenter will walk you through the steps to publish a map or feature service, enable and
disable editing on a feature service, and create web applications with ArcGIS Online templates.
Oral Presentations
Using GIS to Study the Great Bangor Fire of 1911
Margaret Chernosky, Bangor High School
Time travel to explore past landscapes with GIS! Last spring, Bangor High School’s GIS in Geography class shared
their GIS study of the Great Fire of 1911 with the public on the 100 th anniversary of the fire. This inferno destroyed 6
churches, 100 businesses 267 homes and many of the city’s public institutions. Using the census data of 1910 and fire
insurance maps of 1908, the students were able to recreate the city before and after the fire. In this presentation,
Margaret will show you how to prepare a geohistorical project for your own classroom using local data.
Production & Consumption: The Give and Take of Energy – A Lesson Using ArcGIS Online
Catherine Kropp, Washington Academy
Learn about global energy with this demonstration of the spatial analysis tools (graphs, summaries, color ramps, and
pop-up windows) available in ArcGIS Explorer Online. Analyze the global consumption and production of fossil fuels
(oil, coal, natural gas), as well as the consumption of hydroelectric and nuclear energy, while developing an
understanding of the classroom applications of online GIS for grades 7-12. Lesson materials will be available.
Enhancing Engagement in Geospatial Topics Through Authentic Learning
Adena Schutzberg, ABS Consulting Group, Inc.
A class of eighth graders pointed to authentic learning as one way to keep them engaged in class. They probably
didn’t use that term, but knew that learning skills and ideas through “here and now” real world problems was far
more interesting than made up or disconnected examples. How can we do that with geography and GIS *beyond*
doing a local GIS project This session provides examples and techniques to take advantage of real world goings
on to enhance engagement. We’ll look at current tech news, online maps, the media, the local neighborhood and
other real world sources and situations to develop engaging activities as core or supporting tools in teaching
geography, GIS and related skills and ideas.
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GIS and Service Learning – An Almost Perfect Marriage
Robb Freeman, Eastern Maine Community College
In an effort to provide students with practical GIS work experience, Eastern Maine Community College partnered
with the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory (MDIBL) and the Frenchman Bay Consortium to assist in creating
an atlas of Frenchman Bay. After a field trip to Frenchman Bay and MDIBL, students worked with the client (primarily
MDIBL scientists) to create maps of various aspects of Frenchman Bay’s human and natural environment. Students
gained valuable experience through this course and made significant contributions toward this important project.
In addition to highlighting some student work, this presentation will address identification of a suitable service
learning partner, and some of the successes, challenges, and lessons learned that may apply to service learning
efforts in general.
Involving Undergraduate Students in GIS Research: The Bringing Broadband to North Central MA Project
Jane Xinxin Zhang, Fitchburg State University
Many cities and towns in North Central Massachusetts have limited broadband internet access. The purpose of the
Bringing Broadband to North Central Massachusetts project is to provide these communities a basic broadband
availability and usages analysis. Undergrad students contributed in all three phases of the project: data collection
using smart phone GPS in phase one; broadband data organization in a GIS through an off-campus internship in
phase two; and lastly GIS analysis and mapping on broadband, demographic, and business information in phase
three. This project demonstrated that with institutional support undergrad students could contribute greatly in a
research project that not only benefited the local communities, but also led to greater opportunities such as jobs
and grad schools.
GIS and a Sense of Place
Glenn Hazelton, Northeastern University
Near real time geo-referenced locations are now easy to add to GIS web maps like Arcgis.com. We have also
witnessed the rise of geo-referenced Twitter comments in environmental emergency mapping efforts. This
presentation will explore how we might expand the content of these data by embracing the vernacular used to
describe our “Sense of Place.”
Living in the GIS World as a Mac User
Shane Bradt, Geospatial Extension Specialist, UNH Cooperative Extension
Until recently, being both a Mac user and a GIS user was quite difficult, and at times, frustrating enough
to be preventative. Over the past few years, however, more and more options for using GIS on a Mac
have appeared. New GIS software has emerged that is Mac OS X native, and plenty of GIS options now
exist online, completely removed from the Mac/PC operating system debate. In addition, with Intelbased
chips and more horsepower, Macs are much more capable of running Windows software
through a variety of virtualization techniques. This presentation will focus on the range of options for
using GIS on a Mac, and will foster discussion on the best approaches for working with GIS on Macs in
the classroom.
Intra-university Collaborations: an Experiment in Classroom – Facilities Cooperation
Paula Kay Lazrus, St. John's University; Raelynne Lee, St. John's University
As part of its desire to participate in the TreeCampus USA program, the Sustainability Office at St John's University
proposed an Academic Service Learning (ASL) project to the school's ASL office. The project was adopted by a
faculty member teaching a required freshman seminar with a mandatory ASL component. The challenge entails
mapping all the campus trees with students who have no GIS background, at a school with no dedicated GIS
software. Using open source software and landscape planning documents, students started this project in the Fall
of 2012. While still a work in progress we report on how this collaborative project between St. John’s University
Sustainability Department, St. John’s Facilities and three academic classes provide rich experiences for the
students, faculty and administrators. The GIS Tree Mapping project will lead to a student monitored tree
maintenance plan for all trees on campus following the Organic Soils Management of university grounds. Each tree
will have a data point including tree identification as well as needs such as spraying compost tea or pruning limbs.
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Panel Presentations
ArcGIS Online Activities for K12
Julianne Taylor, Katie Hackley, Michael Oram – University of Maine at Machias
Learn how ArcGIS Online can be used in the K12 classroom to address learning standards with fun, hands-on and
inquiry-based activities. Panelists will share resources and instructions for exploring natural disasters, tricky ocean
predators, US census, and more. Materials, maps, and data sets will be available at the http://gis.maine.edu
website after the conference.
Thinking About Spatial Literacy in Education
Sharron Macklin, Williams College; Carol Cady, St. Lawrence University; Jon Caris, Smith College;
Kathleen Dunckel, Unity College
Before promoting the use of GIS (Geographic Information Systems/Science) in the curriculum, consideration needs
to be given to whether today’s students have the necessary foundation to work with spatial concepts. Frank
discussions of the current lack of spatial literacy in all levels of education can shed light on our future path. This
discussion panel will focus on the perceptions of “the state” of spatial literacy on campuses rather than what is
being done to promote literacy. Are students arriving on campus prepared for spatial tasks How might we assess
student spatial literacy Would those in higher education like to see change in the K-12 curriculum to increase this
form of literacy Does a low level of spatial literacy impact teaching of real critical thinking skills Where do we go
from here
The Road to a K-12 Statewide Esri License in New Hampshire
Shane Bradt Geospatial Extension Specialist, UNH Cooperative Extension; Ina Ahern, Plymouth Regional
High School; Bob Woolner, Hopkinton Middle/High School; Scott Semmens, Hopkinton Middle/High
School; Judy Tumosa, New Hampshire Fish and Game Department
Starting this fall, students in New Hampshire schools will have the chance to learn and apply geospatial concepts
using Esri software thanks to a statewide K-12 site license signed in the summer of 2012. The agreement was made
possible through a collaborative effort of the New Hampshire State Department of Education, New Hampshire
Geographic Alliance, New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, UNH Cooperative Extension, and key GIS K-12
educators throughout the state. A team of New Hampshire Education GIS Specialists (NHEdGIS) has been formed to
manage the account and provide professional development to increase the adoption of geospatial technologybased
education in New Hampshire schools and youth groups. During this presentation, key participants of
NHEdGIS will reflect on the current state of GIS education in New Hampshire, share lessons learned on the road to
the statewide Esri site license, and detail site license rollout plans for the 2012-13 school year.
What Do Employers Want The 21 st Century Geospatial Workforce
Patrick Cunningham, Blue Marble Geographics; Stu Rich, Pen Bay Solutions; Judy Colby-George, Spatial
Alternatives; Nate Kane, Maine Department of Transportation
What skills and knowledge do students need to be competitive in the workforce today and in the future Employers
who hire GIS professionals in a variety of capacities will discuss experiences in hiring geospatial professionals, what
they look for, and future trends for GIS in the workforce. They will also answer your questions about GIS in the
workforce.
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