Earth Exploration Tool Kit and other Education GIS News
The The Earth Exploration Toolbook look like a great earth science and GIS tool:
To enable responsible decision-making in the future and to ensure the development of the next generation of scientists, students must develop the skills that enable them to explore scientific questions, assess the results of scientific research, and draw and communicate conclusions to others. These skills are essential as society faces science and engineering challenges, including the need to understand and respond to the impacts of changes in Earth's climate.
One way to help students develop these skills is to involve them in exploring scientific questions using the same data and data analysis tools that scientists use. The Earth Exploration Toolbook (EET,http://serc.carleton.edu/eet) is a freely available online resource made up of investigations or “chapters” that help teachers and their students become competent data users (1).
The [U Maryland] school of architecture recently received a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce, which will help allow researchers to create this interactive computer model that maps inventors across the state and connects them to potential manufacturers and agencies. Beforehand, many inventions were flying under the radar because manufacturers didn't know they existed — and project co-principal investigator Scott Dempwolf said he hopes this 3-D analytical tool will change that.
What started out as a golf cart has transformed into a mobile unit that will map points for the Geographic Information Systems and Global Positioning System.
The machine, named Earth Rover, is a learning tool for students that can collect and survey points to create maps of potentially anywhere on the planet.
The Earth Rover recently completed its first successful test run on the campus of Texas State Technical College.
The article on the Rover goes on to compare it to the Google Car and notes how this impelementation can "using the example of a fire hydrant, the Earth Rover, with accompanying technology, can provide information about when it was installed, what brand it is, and its exact location." I suspect that refers to the database created with the rover, not the rover's technology itself. For now the Rover will do its work at the college, but there is interest from local municipalities to use it for data capture.
