Geocube – The world of Geography at your fingertips

Linkedin is a great site for professional networking and yesterday it led me to have a brief but very informative email conversation with Karl Donert (president of EUROGEO) about geography education outreach.  Karl led me to a very polished interface called Geocube.  Geocube is an interface that resembles a Rubik’s cube that allows a user to discover different geographical topics in an interactive fashion.

Primary interface of the Geocube

Once a general topic is selected an additional interface opens showing more specific topics of discussion.

Secondary interface of the Geocube

Within each of the specific topics (numbering 54) of discussion is written text with terms and definitions, as well as images and embedded videos. All in all a very comprehensive site covering the multidisciplinary aspects of geography enabling the education of the next generation.  The project is an European initiative from the HERODOT  Network for Geography in Higher Education

Integrating Spatial Thinking in the Classroom

A recent Outside the Neatline post describes how spatial thinking and analysis is becoming ever more pervasive throughout the Humanities Community. Much of the reason why geospatial applications are spreading is because the general public has become accustomed to the related technology. The way in which Google Earth & and Maps, GPS technology and other geospatial products have permeated our society is allowing a younger generation to gain unprecedented familiarity with what was- not so long ago- considered cutting-edge technology. So with a new school year approaching, how can we, as educators, supplement this growing familiarity advantageously to improve students’ cognitive abilities?

Picture This by Nora Newcombe (American Educator Summer 2010) presents a road map of how improved spatial thinking often leads to improved math and science ability.

Citing the importance of being able to visualize our world, this article, from American Educator (Summer 2010), discusses the intimate connection between spatial thinking and the STEM disciplines . One example the author, Nora S. Newcombe, describes is how Albert Einstein’s parietal cortex (the area of the brain used for spatial and mathematical thinking) was found to be abnormally large and oddly configured which could have led to his novel ability to imagine and describe our universe.

There are many tools to improve spatial thinking such as computer games that require visualization- like Tetris.

Obviously not everyone is an “Einstein”. In light of this, Newcombe stresses that everyone, with very rare exceptions, can improve their ability to think spatially starting at an early age. For preschool aged students, she recommends such things as having children do jigsaw puzzles, teaching spatial words (out, in, middle, above, next to, etc.) and beginning to use maps and models of the world with children as young as three. As students become older, the repertoire available to improve spatial thinking expands to include even computer games that include visualization- like Tetris.

This screenshot shows a Google Lit Trip of The Odyssey by Homer.

Geospatial software can easily be incorporated into the classroom and give educators an opportunity to create interdisciplinary and dynamic lesson plans that improve students’ ability to think spatially. Google Lit Trips, which synthesizes literature and geography, is a perfect example of this. Follow the links below for more educational resources for integrating geospatial technology and thought in the classroom:

Connecticut Geographic Alliance Lesson Plans – Lesson plans for a variety of ages that include geographic thought.

ESRI Education Community – ESRI, is a global leader in geospatial software, hosts this community site. Be sure to visit the ArcLessons page!

Fieldscope – A National Geographic Project that uses web-based observations and analysis to encourage outdoor education activities. Video tutorials included!

Geospatial Revolution – Geospatial Revolution is a public outreach project by Penn State. The link provided is to their For Educators page.

GIS Educators Day – Call for Proposals

CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS and SAVE THE DATE for the 4th Annual GIS Educators Day Conference

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Saratoga Hilton Hotel, Saratoga Springs, NY

ABOUT GIS EDUCATORS DAY http://www.northeastarc.org/2011/html/giseducators.shtml

GIS Educators Day, sponsored by NEARC, esri, and the New England Geography Education Network, is a full-day conference devoted exclusively to topics and issues pertaining to the use of GIS and other geospatial technologies in K-12, college, and informal education. This unique event is a one day pre-conference to NEARC’s annual professional user conference

PRESENTATION FORMATS: Oral Presentation, Panel Presentation, Hands-on workshop, Poster Session

PRESENTATION TOPIC AREAS:

*Community Projects & Partnerships

*Teaching with GIS in Higher Education (projects, integrating GIS into courses, etc.) *Teaching with GIS in K-12 Schools (class and student projects, lessons, programs, etc.) *Teaching GIS: Strategies and Methods (GIS curricula, student projects, etc.) *Strategies for GIS Training for Educators (institutes, online courses, training events, etc.) *GIS in Informal Education *Integrating GIS with GPS/Remote Sensing *GIS in the Cloud *Open Source GIS *Emerging Topics: Mobile Devices and Crowdsourcing *Grab Bag

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS:

*The presentation cannot market specific products and services *Abstracts should be 150-200 words.

*Presenters must register and pay to attend the preconference at the regular preconference fee. (There will be a special Sunday/Monday rate for those who would like to stay for the first day of the main users conference) *Abstracts must be submitted by June 30, 2011

QUESTIONS:

Contact Lyn Malone or Alex Chaucer, GIS Educators Day Co-Chairs at lmalone@worldviewsgis.com achaucer@skidmore.edu

SUBMIT AN ABSTRACT ONLINE AT http://is.gd/GISED

More Working Women Than Men Have College Degrees, Census Bureau Reports

On Tuesday April 26, 2011 the U.S. Census Bureau released data on pertaining to the highest level of education completed based on data from 2010. According to this report, among the employed population 25 years of age and older, 37% of women had attained a bachelor’s degree or more as of 2010, compared to 35% of men.

This report is based on data from the tabulations on Educational Attainment in the United States: 2010 and represents the most detailed look ever at years of school completed. Additional data and highlights are available at:
http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/education/cb11-72.html

Khan Academy

While this isn’t geography specific, I think it’s an important resource to mention for those interested in online resources for education. Khan Academy was recently reviewed on CNN’s Money website citing Bill Gates praise for the innovative website.

Topics covered on the website are vast and include a wide variety of Mathematics, Science, and even some Social Science. Watch the video embedded below from PBS NewsHour to get an overview of how Sal Khan has leveraged the power of online education resources!

How in the World #6 – Summer Solstice and the Seasons

Today is the Summer Solstice of 2010!  What’s important about the summer solstice?  It’s the day of the year when the northern hemisphere of Earth is tilted at it’s maximum extent towards the sun.  It also means the longest day of the year for those in the northern hemisphere and the shortest day of the year for those in the southern hemisphere.  From this point forward in time the Earth will slowly begin tilting its axis away from the Sun until the northern hemisphere experiences the winter solstice on December 21, 2010.  The back and forth tilting of the Earth’s axis is what creates the seasons.  Watch the following video for a simple overview of the solstices, equinoxes and seasons below.

To learn more about the sun and earth relationships check out Dr. Jane R. Thorngren’s website.

World Cup 2010

The World Cup has an obvious geographical component that educators can use to capture their students enthusiasm.  Below are a few links to some teacher resources (lesson plans, resources, etc…) that may be useful!

These are just a few to get the creative juices flowing, I’m sure you’ll be able to find much more on your own.  With that I leave you with a snazzy video I found from Teacher Planet that can be used in an ESL setting.

MAGIC 2.0: Using GIS to Empower K-12 Curriculum Development.

ABSTRACT



Continued integration of spatial data sets into emerging web mapping platforms has increased the opportunities for non-expert users of GIS to perform spatial analysis. These web mapping platforms have become user-friendly and can enable the development of GIS resources and maps for learning opportunities in the K-12 environment. This poster will illustrate how the University of Connecticut’s Libraries Map and Geographic Information Center – MAGIC has developed simple learning experiences using GIS data and Google Maps which can be integrated within the K-12 curriculum. Through the blog “Outside the Neatline” MAGIC hopes to display a vast array of sample lesson plans/activities which integrate Web GIS and Maps, and is developing resources which encourage educators to integrate spatial thinking skills in an interdisciplinary fashion.



Outside the Neatline is a blog that began as a collaborative effort of graduate students who work at MAGIC with an aim to give the public a better understanding of what geographers do and how to use web mapping platforms. The blog grew and potential learning applications in the classroom using this site became evident. What we hope to illuminate now is the usefulness of historic maps, digitally storing and displaying paper maps, and how they may be used in current web mapping platforms. Our delivery mechanism just happens to be Outside the Neatline, which is composed of the following features:



Did You Know?

The “Did you know” segment of Outside the Neatline features how GIS professionals use geography everyday by professionals in the industry. Additionally, this category reports on news items, opportunities, and innovations in the field of Geography. These items are worth reporting on as it demonstrates that geographical concepts have concrete applications in the world outside of the classroom.



How in the World?

Demonstrates how geographic information from everyday sources (paper maps, GPS, literature) can be transformed into digital geographic information for use in a Geographic Information System. The importance of this category shows students that current digital geographic information comes from existing primary and secondary print resources.



Map of the Week

Map of the Week draws its strength from bundling together many different content areas with a map as the common element. The featured map captures many different elements:



History

Maps are inherently temporal, freezing a moment in time. Often the maps content are directed by the context of when and where they were created. Outside the Neatline takes advantage of this information and provides a brief historical summary, web links to significant events, figures, and places related to the map, and when available photographs to illustrate the importance of that map.



Reading and Writing

The “Map of the Week” web feature is created in such a manner that there is much more then images to peer at. As described in the history portion a brief written history is included with web links to other informational websites. When available, a Google Book will be embedded on the “Map of the Week” page that is directly related to the map. While reading skills can be increased by an exposure to new vocabulary, improving writing skills is not out of the question. The creators of Outside the Neatline envision instructors using the “Map of the Week” posts to act as a springboard for creativity by inspiring writing exercises related to the story that a map can tell. The students imagination is clearly the only limit.



Science and Math

While there is much to be said about the science of map making, the content of the maps is what will spur scientific inquiry. Maps of precipitation, temperature and vegetation types could easily be integrated into climate and weather units. Distribution maps of tsetse flies and incidence of sleeping sickness infections in Africa lend themselves to discussions on human /environment interaction and biology. Even railroad maps can begin a dialog about the steam engine and the Industrial Revolution.



The next two sections are examples of how Web 2.0 GIS technology can be leveraged in the classroom.


Google Maps GIS Exercise



The following is an excerpt from an Outside the NeatlineHow in the World?” blog post. The object of the page is to act as a spring board activity and to show users that the average person can access GIS data just as easily as mapping professionals.



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Congratulations, you are now an experienced GIS user! In this exercise you have loaded, queried, and analyzed a GIS data layer! Now you can experiment with MAGIC’s other data layers and have fun making maps.



This activity has engaged the students and sets them up to find and give directions, search for adjacent places, plan how much money Jeff and Brandon will need for fishing equipment, and write about Jeff and Brandon’s fishing adventures!



MAP OF THE WEEK AND MAP MASH – UPS

Map of the Week

The “Map of the Week” blog entry begins with a unique featured paper map from the MAGIC map collection. A brief introduction to the map outlines the origins and historical significance of the map to give it proper context. Individual features are selected from the map and highlighted in the blog entry. Each highlighted feature is linked to other websites that provide a greater depth of information.



The objective is to use the map as an aggregator of digital data . The strength of the “Map of the Week” blog entry is it’s ability to act as what others may term as a webquest or web assignment home page. Unlike the older concepts of webquests, a live blog in the Web 2.0 era allows educators to embed their own content, or content from Google books, or Google maps, or video from related sources on the internet. Additionally, in a Web 2.0 world, students can create their own map of the week!



See Below for a “Map of the Week” blog entry that leads into a Map Mash – Up of Chicago, Illinois.

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Map Mash-ups

A Google Map Mash-up is created by georeferencing and placing user created maps content in Google Maps web mapping engine. These are powerful learning tools on their own that can highlight the differences and similarities of a place over time. Additional custom content can be added to these maps in the form of KML layers.



Below is an example of a map mash-up created to supplement a “Map of the Week” blog entry on Chicago during the Worlds Fair in 1893. Places and addresses can be searched on this map using Google Maps geocoding engine and then compared to modern satellite or map layers.



The example below demonstrates the above capabilities in addition to how points of interest can be exported as KML layers that also have HTML pop up balloons that link to outside sources for further information.

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FUTURE POSSIBILITIES



The previous examples are only a sample of what is possible in the classroom using Web 2.0 technologies in conjunction with geographic content. While these developments are exciting there are still more innovations on the horizon.



An innovation of interest is development of mobile technologies. Since these have become ever more prevalent the possibilities of Geo-Web 2.0 are only limited by the imagination.

Future releases from MAGIC include smartphone applications that allow access to:

  • Google Map Mash-up Campus Bus Routes
  • Google Map Mash-up Campus Building Maps
  • Academic Calendar
  • Outside the Neatline Blog and “Map of the Week” interdisciplinary posts.

We are most excited about using the smartphone to access Outside the Neatline and MAGIC historical maps via Quick Response (QR) bar codes.



The possible use of QR Codes for creative use in the classroom is an avenue we are looking forward to exploring further. We envision a geography treasure hunt where students find and access web maps and geography blogs using an enabled smartphone. QR codes are easily created and can be used so that individuals could access maps and other spatial information in near real-time.



By the way, the QR code below are active and will lead you to some of our URL’s. Go ahead, give it a try!