| April 9, 2011 | ||
| 7:30 pm | to | 9:30 pm |
One of the reasons for regular meetings of professional groups like the Delaware Geographic Data Committee is to hear about aspects of our professional that we might otherwise miss and to be inspired by approaches and techniques that may be new to us. Here’s a different sort of opportunity.
Some 270 students from schools in all three Delaware counties were treated to games, demonstrations and hands-on learning about GIS, spatial information and aviation history at Delaware’s third annual the GIS Day Field Trip on November 17, 2010. The event, put on by the DGDC’s GeoEducation in Delaware and GIS Day subcommittees, was part of a national celebration of GIS and geospatial technologies, and part of Geography Awareness Week.
The City of Dover, a leader in municipal GIS use, also held a GIS Day open house at City Hall. City employees and visitors were offered GIS demonstrations, games and other activities focused on the use of GIS and geospatial data by the city.
| November 17, 2010 |
Registration is now open for Delaware’s third annual GIS Day field trip for fifth grade students. The GeoEducation in Delaware subcommittee of the Delaware Geographic Data Committee will host fifth grade classes from around the state on Wednesday, November 17 at the Air Mobility Command Museum in Dover, for a variety of activities designed to create awareness and enhance the students’ GIS knowledge and how GIS affects everyday life.
Students will enjoy hands-on opportunities including the Earth Balloon from the Delaware Children’s Museum, a flight simulator, and other activities relating to working with GIS/GPS systems and compass navigation.
GIS Day is the Wednesday of National Geography Awareness Week, which is part of the National Geographic’s My Wonderful World campaign:
Launched in 1987 by presidential proclamation, Geography Awareness Week is an annual opportunity for families and schools to engage in fun, educational experiences that draw attention to Geo-Literacy and the importance of geographic understanding in ensuring our nation’s economic competitiveness, national security, environmental sustainability, and the livability of our communities in the 21st century.
Activities for each school will last approximately three hours. School arrivals will be staggered throughout the day to accommodate as many classes as possible. The GIS Day field trip is an equal opportunity event and is free to Delaware schools. Schools must provide their own transportation.
Registration is on a “first submitted, first served” basis and is limited to 100 students from each county. More information and a registration form (PDF) are available on the GeoEducation in Delaware web site.
The Cape Gazette newspaper has a story about the Milton Elementary School class that won the K-12 Student Contest run as part of the 2010 Delaware GIS Conference.
State GIS Coordinator Mike Mahaffie congratulates 2010 GIS In Education Award recipient Jenna Oliva at Delaware GIS 2010
Jenna Oliva, a seventh-grade science teacher at Millsboro Middle School, has been awarded the 2010 Delaware GIS in Education Award.The honor came as part of the opening plenary session at the 2010 Delaware GIS Conference, in Dover, on March 30, 2010.
Ms. Oliva, a former DNREC employee, has used GIS with her students as part of a unit on watersheds. She has also helped with the the Delaware Technical and Community College TRIO summer program and has witnessed the value of GIS for the education of students ranging from middle school to high school.
In her seventh-grade classroom, Ms. Oliva has integrated GIS software with her smartboard to let a whole classroom full of students interact with GIS tools as they explore Delaware watersheds.
She was nominated, and honored, for her dedication to providing her students with the best possible educational tools.
The GIS in Education Award has been given at each Delaware GIS Conference since 2002. A roster of past award-winners can be found on the Delaware GeoEducation web site.
Two different groups of students from Milton Elementary School won first place honors in the K-12 Student Contest, Maps Tell the Story: Plan for the Future, run as part of the 2010 Delaware GIS Conference.
The K-12 contest, sponsored by the GeoEducation in Delaware subcommittee of the Delaware Geographic Data Committee, by CABE Associates, and by Tidewater Utilities,invited Delaware students to investigate how maps can help plan for the future. Contest entries could be posters, multimedia entries, or digital map data. The GeoEducation subcommittee selected finalists to be displayed to, and voted on by, attendees at the GIS conference on March 30.
The NGO mapping organization MapAction earlier this year published a Field Guide to Humanitarian Mapping (PDF) that sets out to provide “a comprehensive manual to selecting and using free and open source GIS and other software for humanitarian operations.”
The Delaware GeoEducation Subcommittee is looking for entrants in the 2010 Delaware K-12 GIS Contest — Maps Tell the Story: Plan for the Future. This contest, which will culminate as part of the 2010 Delaware GIS Conference, is an opportunity for Delaware’s students to explore the many ways that maps and geospatial information help us plan for the future.
There’s a new educational resource out there for GIS users: GISHowTo.com. This is a site set up by a GIS enthusiast to collect short videos showing common tasks on a variety of GIS platforms. At the moment, the site includes tutorials on tasks using ENVI, ESRI, Global Mapper, Google Earth and MapInfo. This list may grow.
Of course, a quick search on YouTube will turn up a large collection GIS-related videos, and the major GIS companies also offer great on-line training tools.
But it doesn’t hurt to have a site out there that one can bop over to for a quick reminder on a common task.
GIS Day in Delaware was about as busy as we had expected. What follows is a report from the two events I was able to attend. If anyone has information for the other events, please share those in the comments section.
Of Interest…
