Thursday, July 30. 2009

Education Tidbits

Clark State Community College in Ohio announced a new geospatial technology associate degree program to begin this fall in Beavercreek. It was created through a partnership with Advanced Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC), CACI and Woolpert and is partially funded through the Ohio Board of Regent’s Future Jobs’ grant.

- Springfield News Sun

The Virginia Space Grant Consortium received an $894,228 grant from the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education program for the Geospatial Technician Education through Virginia's Community Colleges project. Three community colleges will establish "academic pathways in geospatial technology" and serve as model programs for other schools. Project partners include the Virginia Community College System; Virginia Geospatial Extension Program at Virginia Tech; and John Tyler, Tidewater and Virginia Western community colleges.

- Daily Press

As the latest cube-shaped disaster imaging satellite from Surrey Satellite Technology Limited launches today, there's a project aboard from UK students. Called Poise and developed by pupils at Shrewsbury School, in Shropshire, the experiment will measure variations in the ionosphere - the outermost layer of the atmosphere which can impact GPS signals.

- BBC

Thursday, July 23. 2009

Geospatial Analysis of School Choice

A special issue of the American Journal of Education takes on school choice - including several articles that use GIS to explore the topic. (press release)

It's typically a fee-based journal, but two articles of interest to geospatial practitioners (and others!) are free to read:

School Choice in Suburbia: Test Scores, Race, and Housing Markets

School Choice and Competitive Incentives: Mapping the Distribution of Educational Opportunities across Local Education Markets

Among the findings: how much housing prices rise based on a local school's test scores and minority population.

- via EdWeek Blog

Education Tidbits

The University of Florida and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics will soon establish a joint University of Florida-ICRISAT International Distance Education Center in Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India.

First up, in a series of short courses to be offered by the UF faculty is one on GIS in landscape analysis, analysis of bioenergy projects, soil and water science aspects in watershed development, crop modeling, and the use of geo-statistical data in environmental assessment. The technology used for instruction and GIS was not noted.

- The Hindu News

Forget GIS data companies driving around and collecting data, Anthony Phillips, a senior at Virginia Tech, spent the summer driving around his Pulaski County, WV collecting data on some 300 streams in the county and how close they are to roads. The goal? A searchable database for the National Weather Service in Blacksburg that will enable early prediction of flooded roads.

To compile the data, Phillips uses maps and GIS to determine which streams are within 25 feet of a road. He measures the area and uses a mathematical equation to determine how likely the area is to flood based on the proximity of the road to the stream. Then Prescott, 19, documents the area in pictures.

Phillips color-codes the map according to the likelihood that a flood could occur. Red means a flood can occur if the stream rises by as little as a foot and a half; blue means a flood isn't likely.

- Roanoke Times

TechniGraphics, with 600 workers around the globe, but based in Wooster, OH has opened its own university. While the economy is unsteady, the company, which specializes in geospatial for intelligence, opened TechniGraphics University, a place designed to educate, train and develop leaders and workers.

- The Daily Record

Thursday, July 16. 2009

World Wind Goes to Programming Camp

internalDrive runs programming camps across the country. A recent one held at Stanford was aimed at teens who already know a bit of programming. Their projects involved World Wind, the open source geodata visualization tool from NASA. Among the tasks to the campers:

- code the game of Risk onto World Wind
- code an interface so users could add data and labels to the program
- code in interface so the Wii could control the program

- The Modesto Bee

Wednesday, July 15. 2009

GeoMentor: Online "Dating" for GeoProfessionals and Educators (#ESRIUC)

I visited the GeoMentor booth to be sure I understood what the program was and was not. There's been quite a lot of excitement about it here at the conference. The National Geographic person at the booth "scanned my badge" before I could say anything and then told me that that information would be put into a prototype profile about me on the site.

That's a key part of this program: linking up potential pairs who can work together to get K-12 students (in school or in more informal settings like camp, 4-H, Girls and Boys clubs, etc.) involved in geography and GIS related activities. The other part is the material available for these teams to use with their students. That's about it for the "formal" part of the program. The pairs figure out what sort of commitments they can make, what sorts of activities (computer and non-computer based) they can do that fit with their goals.

Apparently, I'll soon receive an e-mail asking me to fill out my profile and make myself available as a mentor. One interesting twist? Mentors need not be in the same geography as their partners; they can offer their support/expertise online.

The Role of GIS in Enhancing Education/GeoCareers #ESRIUC #ERSIEDUC

A combined ESRI UC and ESRI EDUC panel session was officially titled The Role of GIS in Enhancing Education. It got redefined a bit to examine geocareers. No matter the panel had plenty to say, as did the audience, a mix of educators and industry GIS users. ESRI’s Governor Jim Geringer moderated.

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