AP Human Geography Test Takers Up and other Education GIS News

AP Human Geography test takers had the highest jump from 2010 to 2011 in the subjects listed in the blog post:

• "Human Geography" was up 30.3 percent, to 45,229

For context:

Of the 37 subjects tested, participation rates climbed in all but six for the class of 2011, compared with 2010 graduates.

- Ed Week Blog via @NCGE1915

Esri formally announced enhancements to its education site license:

Already added to the site license program this year are the mapping and charting solutions that improve cartographic production including Esri Nautical Solution, Esri Aeronautical Solution, Esri Defense Solution, and Esri Production Mapping. Also added are the ArcGIS Data Interoperability extension, which facilitates data sharing, and Esri Community Analyst, a web-based solution for domestic planning and policy analysis.

Future additions will include subscriptions to ArcGIS Online, a cloud-based system for creating and sharing geospatial content; new workflow-oriented Virtual Campus courses; Esri CityEngine, used for advanced 3D modeling and urban planning; and Esri demographic and Tapestry data for the United States.

- press release

- details and analysis on Ignite Education Blog

A new teaching resource (maps, cards, blocks, role play cards, etc.) for New Zealand high school students that looks at managing growth in the western Bay of Plenty.

'Managing Growth - SmartGrowth' has been jointly developed by the western Bay of Plenty's growth planning organisation SmartGrowth, Tauranga City Council and Bay of Plenty Regional Council with educational curriculum development company Indigo Pacific.

The free resource uses SmartGrowth and the western Bay of Plenty sub-region as a case study for managing growth, exploring global growth-related concepts and national growth-related trends.

Among the topics addressed: mapping and spatial analysis

- Voxy.co.nz

GIS Algorithm Cup and other GIS Competition News

With the goal of encouraging innovation in a fun way, ACM SIGSPATIAL is hosting an algorithm contest with winners to be announced at the ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS conference in November 2012. Contest participants will submit original computer programs to be evaluated by the contest organizers on a common dataset. The first place team will receive US$ 500 plus one NVIDIA Quadro 6000 (or similar) graphics card. Second place will receive US$ 400 plus one NVIDIA TEGRA tablet device. Third place will receive US$ 300 and one NVIDIA TEGRA tablet.

The 2012 contest will be about map matching, which is the problem of correctly matching a sequence of location measurements to roads. 

- contest page via @michael_d_gould

How about a game based learning contest? Ideas for teaching spatial literacy and/or geography would be valid!

In an effort to circulate innovative ideas about integrating electronic gaming in the classroom, the NEA Foundation, in a partnership with Microsoft U.S. Partners in Learning, is hosting a competition for the best ideas on "how interactive technology and game-based learning can improve teaching and learning," according to the Foundation's website. Game-based learning can mean anything from understanding physics through the popular Angry Birds app to delving into the structure of society in the computer game Minecraft.

The Challenge to Innovate (C2i) competition is open to educators, students, parents, or anyone who has an idea and has registered for free as a member of the U.S. Department of Education's Open Innovation Portal, which acts as a public forum for improving education. Participants post their gaming idea to the portal, and other registered members—most of whom are educators and parents—award points to the ideas they think are most innovative and helpful.

- US News

Aim: The main aim of the OneGeology Best Application competition is to demonstrate the wide range of potential applied uses and applications that the OneGeology Portal, and geological data/services that it provides, can offer for easy discoverability, access and use.

...

The registration of the applications developed for this competition will be accepted until the end of May 2012.

...

The winner of the competition will receive a free registration for the 34th International Geological Congress, Brisbane, Australia (August 2012) and will also have the opportunity to present the new innovative application during the Geoinformation Symposium/ OneGeology Session at the conference.

You must be under 35 to enter.

- website via @jeffharrison

Through their Google+ page, Google Maps announced the inaugural Map Your University competition for all students in the U.S. and Canada. Through the use of Google’s Map Maker, Google is asking current students to create detailed maps of their campuses that will be viewable on Google Maps and Google Earth. Winners of the competition will be award fun Google-y prizes such as Android tablets, phones, GPS devices, and more.

- Web Pro News

New York City kicked off voting today in its third annual BigApps competition, which rewards apps that use some of the city’s open data sets to build apps. But one of the most popular resources appears to be Foursquare, which is in use in more than half of the top apps in early voting.

- GigaOm

San Diego (Open Data) App Challenge and other GIS Competition News

Mayor Sanders and the City of San Diego are challenging the software developer community to create new apps using city and partner data. They’re also inviting the public to share their ideas for innovative new apps.

Winners will receive $50,000 in cash prizes as well as promotional exposure. Prizes will be awarded for apps that enhance city services and quality of life for San Diegans, and that use the data in innovative ways. Submitted apps can run on the web, desktop computers, tablets, or smartphones. The public is encouraged to share application ideas related to energy, tourism, economic development, transportation, the environment, health and other areas.

The public will have one month to share ideas for San Diego apps they’d like to see created. Developers will have approximately three months following the challenge launch to build their submissions. A panel of distinguished judges from the tech industry, venture capital, and partner institutions will select winners, and the general public will vote to identify two “Popular Choice” winners.

The Get Outdoors Massachusetts contest is open to the public and seeks public participation in developing technologies that feature Massachusetts outdoor and natural resources. The goal of the competition is to provide software developers with data to create a mobile application for the public to use a smart phone to map to public lands, access points and other outdoor venues for outdoor recreation. The agencies will provide data about state parks, wildlife management areas, public boat ramps, agricultural tourism locations and parking locations and lists of available activities at each facility or location.

The 2012 IEEE GRSS Data Fusion Contest is designed to investigate the potential of multi-modal/multi-temporal fusion of very high spatial resolution imagery. This year, participants will download three different sets of images (optical, SAR, and LIDAR) over the downtown of San Francisco and each participant will get to choose their own research topic to work with. Proposals should describe in detail the addressed problem, the method used, and the end result.

Geocaching Trail Brings in Revenue for Athens, Ohio

"We don't have any numbers yet or statistics of the economic impact, I haven't calculated that yet but from what I can estimate, it's been at least a $500,000 economic impact since June of 2010," [Jenna] Dill [Athens County Convention and Visitors Bureau Marketing and Sales Manager] said.

Geocachers who complete the Athens trail receive an official Athens geocoin. That seems to be one draw, though only 200 people have completed the trail. There are some 80 caches in the area.

- WOUB

What Colleges are Using and other Education GIS News

Among the geo tools you can learn about (for use in reserach/classes in any discipline) at Duke:

GeoCommons

Google Earth Pro

ArcGIS

and Tableau Public but that's not noted as a GIS tool.

- Duke GIS and Data Blog

Dr. Seidu Mohammed, Director General, National Space Research and Development Agency [Nigeria] said deployment of satellite technology remained Nigeria's antidote to tackle the various environmental challenges facing the country.

Nigerian scientists are working with the University of Missouri to use imagery to do  environmental assessment of oil spill damages in the Niger Delta as well as an assessment of the Lake Chad.

- All Africa

A review of educational standards in the UK have led to the recommnedation, among others,. that geography be studied between ages 14-16.

It recommended that all pupils in England should study geography, history and a foreign language between the ages of 14 and 16, in some form, even if their courses did not lead to full GCSEs.

New standards are expected in 2014.

- Telegraph

The Casper Mountain Science School, Wyoming (CMSS) teaches K-12 students at Eadsville, a mining camp on Casper Moutain. The log schoolhouse and the town around the camp shut down a century ago and current students explore the history and geography of the area. And, local college students help enhance the K-12 program.

A group from Casper College’s advanced GIS (geographic information system) class created a layer of digital, interactive maps complete with pictures and historical information about Eadsville for those students.

- Casper Journal