At Holt Elementary in Durham, NC, the local GIS users are teaching about GIS via Google Earth. I'm not sure how I feel about this exercise:
To illustrate the difference that GIS technology makes, [GIS analyst from the GIS division of the city’s Technology Solutions Department, Robert] Cushman asked the students to locate their homes or school on paper maps within 30 seconds. They hunched over the maps, furiously searching for familiar street names or landmarks. At the end of the 30 seconds, just one student said he’d located his home.
“Now we don’t use maps like this anymore – very rarely,” Cushman said. “The maps we work with are made to be easy to use” – like traffic maps on morning TV newscasts and those used by vehicle navigation systems.
- Herald Sun
Engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas are developing an emergency communications network that will maintain operation during natural disasters and provide critical warnings and geographic information to people affected by the disasters. The researchers are honing and testing the system now and expect to deploy a pilot network at the end of 2012.
Geo challenges include how to arrange the "mesh" network that enables the network and running GIS on low power devices. The work is funded by an NSF grant.
- press release
- project page
Researchers at the University of Maryland (UMD) and the University of Massachusetts, Boston (UMB) have created a detailed map (and accompanying study) of where terrorism attacks have occurred since 1970.
...while certain areas (those surrounding Manhattan and Los Angeles, for example) have endured as terror 'hot spots' throughout the study, others have come and go. In the 2000s, for example, there has been a higher-than-average rate of attacks in Maricopa County, AZ, Phoenix's county. King County, WA, on the other hand, was a terror hot spot in the 1970s and 1980s, but has been largely quiet since.
- HuffPo
- press release
by Adena Schutzberg on 02/06 at 03:00 AM |
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URISA has extended the deadline for its student comptition until June 20. I think the original deadline was June 1. I'm thinking not so many students submitted papers. Perhaps the "prizes" are not appealing? Perhaps the requirements too onorous? Any students or educators want to offer feedback?
- details via @urisa
Continue reading...
by Adena Schutzberg on 06/08 at 12:46 PM |
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If you’ve not seen it the Google Earth for Educators page has all sorts of resources, lesson plans, info about grants for using the tool in education. (I’m sure some of the ideas can be used with other tools as well.)
- via @manomarks
Northwestern Michigan College’s Water Studies Institute is mapping the bottom of Grand Traverse Bay in a month long project, the second phase of the Grand Traverse Bay Hydrographic Research Project. Student interns from NMC’s Freshwater Studies degree program and Great Lakes Maritime Academy as well as Michigan Sea Grant, are conducting advanced multibeam hydrographic surveys of both east and west arms of Grand Traverse Bay and northern Lake Michigan. All research is being conducted onboard the NMC research vessel Northwestern and continues through Aug. 12 and will produce the first new maps in 80 years. Among the finds in the first phase? A shipwreck.
- Local Edition
A team led by University of Georgia oceanographer Samantha Joye tracked one plume during research voyages in May and June. And, they are heading back to find any others they might have missed. “The plumes are a mixture of seawater and methane gas, oil and other hydrocarbons that are spewing from the broken well a mile below the water’s surface off the coast of Louisiana.” Recent federal reports confirm plumes, which could be a threat to water life, just like the oil is. The tool of choice to find and map the plumes? Sound waves. “The presence of gas changes the speed that sound passes through the water,” Joye explained.
- Miami Herald
by Adena Schutzberg on 07/29 at 08:02 AM |
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You may not have noticed but Google’s doing very well switching educational institutions to its platform offering, called Google Apps for Education (mail, content sharing, etc.). There’s even a “marketing” site complete with a map of schools using the tools.
Yesterday Google’s announced a plan to “sell” those same services to government via a new product (ok it’s just packaging as is the above offering) called Google Public Sector. Top on the list of apps: Google Maps and Earth.
- Google Blog Post
- Mashable
by Adena Schutzberg on 09/16 at 06:11 AM |
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