Sunday, August 08, 2004

ESRI Conference -- Day Two

This second day of attending the ESRI Conference here in San Diego began with an 8:30 session entitled "Transforming Middle Grades." Three presenters were on tap for the start of this Sunday.

Bob Coulter, from Missouri Botanical Garden, titled his talk "Mapping the Environment: Free GIS Curriculum Modules. MOBOT has programs in place that make use of GIS data and also training programs for teachers. He pointed us toward his web site which includes some curricular materials available for download and use.

Bob continued into the second presentation and was joined by Joseph Kerski. Joseph is from United States Geological Survey. Their paper was called "Using GIS to Transform the Mathematical Landscape." As one would gather from that title, their strong emphasis was on the possibilities they see in having GIS a much greater contribution to Math curricula (echoes of one of yesterday's presentations).

Next came "Why Do Kids Want GIS in Their Classroom?" by Barbaree Ash Duke from North Carolina State University. Ms. Duke presented a convincing set of examples and some testimonials from students (via video) of the great interest the students she's worked with had for the projects and explorations they had done using geographical data and GIS software. They specifically mentioned that these projects were more interactive.

Michelle Frankel, of Earthspan, Inc., brought this morning session to an end with her paper, "Eye of the Falcon: An Environmental Science Curriculum Utilizing GIS and Satellite-Based Wildlife Tracking." Ms. Frankel presented some fascinating examples of projects done with birds, using the satellite data to plot hibernation paths and, in another case, the nesting patterns of eagles.

After a brief coffee break, the 10:30 session began. I attended a set of presentations under the heading, "Designing Project Based Instroductory Programs."

All three of these presenters focused on the role GIS was playing in the respective institutions:
  • Curtis Edson from the military academy at West Point ("Improving GIS and Cartography Topic Integration and Assimilation")
  • Yasser Ayad from Clarion University of Pennsylvania ("GIS Education in Rural Pennsylvania: GIS Curriculum at Clarion")
  • Wiliiam Harmon from Cabrillo and Ohlone Colleges ("Articulation of GIS in Lower Division Community College Geography Courses")
In retrospect, I think I read too much into the reference to "project based introductory programs" in this session's title and I probably should have made another choice for this time slot. Still, it was interesting to hear of developments in the curricula of some higher ed institutions.

After a lunch off in the Gaslight District, came the first afternoon session. With the moniker "Using Great Data From The Net", I was definitely looking forward to this session. One of the challenges in using GIS well in the classroom is having the data prepared and ready for use by students. This process is complex and not at all like falling off a log. GIS has a fairly complex syntax for organizing and assembling data.

As you'll see from the list of great resources to follow, the potential for finding wonderful data -- and often GIS-ready -- is here and it's quite exciting. Exploring these many great data sources and figuring out how best to use them will take time, but, as I say, this was indeed a most rewarding session.

The first presenter, who I'd already run across yesterday and earlier today -- Joseph Kerski from USGS -- had the first slot at 1:30. His talk was called "Downloading, Formatting, and Using USGS Base Spatial Data Within ESRI GIS Software." Joe proceeded to zoom through his very informative PowerPoint slides and, in the process, showed us a tremendous set of data resources. To whit:
Status Graphics -- Availability of USGS Geospatial Data
The National Map Viewer
Delaware DataMIL (Data Mapping and Integration Laboratory)
National Atlas
Terraserver -- Aerial photos
there is a terraserver tool for GIS available at ESRI Support Site
Earth Explorer (USGS)
USGS Educational Map Catalog
MapLink
National Mapping Program Standards (USGS)
U.S.G.S Topographic Maps California Digital Raster Graphics
Geo Community (source of free DEMs, DRGs, DOQQs, FEMA Flood Data, and more)
USGS Geographical Data
Global Land Cover Facility -- Global imagery
GIS In Education at Rocky Mountain Mapping Center
Downloading and Formatting Earth Images (Topographic Maps and Aerial Photographs) from Terraserver for Recreational, Scientific, Educational, and GIS Use

Whew! When Joseph was finished, I was reeling. It's hard to know where to start other than to say that there are incredible resources out there and so much more to explore and learn. It's also obvious that there is a lot out there for making use of this information and many a rewarding way for it to be used in school. As always, though, the issue of time to explore and dig around remains.

The next presenter was Lyn Malone and she actually had two presentations to do back-to back. The first she called "Online GIS -- The David Rumsey Historical Map Collection." Ms. Malone introduced an incredible site where Mr. Rumsey has made his (apparently) extensive map collection available online. She showed us two specific online sites, one covering Boston and the other the Lewis and Clark Expedition. We were able to see how easy it was to view and compare historical maps going back to the late 1700's up to around 1900. This is a winner!

Lyn next went on to "Online GIS -- Geography Network in the Classroom." This was another incredible site. One great feature here is a web-based GIS tool that seemed to make it possible for mapping projects to be done using this site. This is yet another site that warrants a good long look!

My final stopping place in the late afternoon was a computer lab session addressing "Managing Metadata with ArcCatalog." Taught by ESRI trainer, Peter Kaslanchuk, we got to do a series of exercises and get practice with metadata files and ArcGIS 9.

Looking back, this was a long but exciting day. There is so much material to return to and explore. Much to look forward to!