Earth Observation Day 2024 is finally here as it the release of the AmericaView 2024 Earth Observation Day Poster! The poster is following the theme of this year’s Earth Science Week theme, “Earth Science Everywhere”. The front of the AmericaView 2024 Earth Observation Day poster features 6 image themes: agriculture, disaster, forestry, urban land use, water, and wildlife. The back of the poster explains the significance of the images and provides links to 6 themed lesson plans. IowaView was responsible for the disaster management lesson plan.
The ISU GIS Facility will be hosting the 3rd annual geospatial summer workshop for K-12 teachers and pre-service teachers in Ames, Iowa on July 17 – 18, 2024. This workshop will show many geospatial tools and applications from the Esri ecosystem as well as Google Earth, OpenStreetMap, AmericaView, and others. Teachers will get to see a variety of map tools and exercises that they can bring into current lessons. We will explore resources available at local, state, and national levels. Each participant will make a StoryMap to use in their classroom. Teachers can sign up for graduate or continuing education credit. Please email Amy Logan with any questions.
A StoryMap developed by Mary Schorse and Tracy DeLiberty (DelawareView)
Have you ever thought about how much water it takes to make a pair of jeans? To produce a pound of corn? Or to make a car? What if you had a limited amount of water and had to decide how to “spend” your precious resource? Water: A Global Resource is an ArcGIS StoryMap, developed by Mary Schorse and Tracy DeLiberty (DelawareView), is designed to give you background on what we mean by ‘water resources.’ The lessons are also designed to stimulate your thinking about how we use, protect and monitor this precious, limited natural resource.
Screen shot from the Water: A Global Resource StoryMap
Teacher making a Landsat CollageTeachers making Landsat CollagesA finished Landsat CollageTeacher with finished Landsat CollageChoosing MaterialsParticipants with Landsat CollagesIowaView Staff Presentation
A few years back, Tyler Danielson, a GIS professional at Bolton and Menk, Inc. wrote a book called Lindsey the GIS Professional to help describe working with a geographic information system (GIS). In the book, Lindsey explains the information needed to create a map and how to collect it. Then she shows how to take that information to make a map of her favorite park. It gives readers a good introduction to the basics of GIS.Click here to read the book online: https://www.bolton-menk.com/books/lindsey/Lindsey.html.
Since the publication of the book, there have been several other companion resources produced. They can be found at www.LindseyLovesMaps.com:
At Home Activities – a maze, dot connect, data collection activity, analyzing data activity, drawing maps, and map coloring pages.
Teacher Resources – This includes a teacher guide and shows how the book, Lindsey the GIS Professional matches up with English, Social Studies and Science standards.
The coolest thing is that this story is based off of a real LINDSEY!
The USGS has produced an amazing collection of images (also available as trading cards!) that show Earth’s change over time. The Earthshot collection has a wide variety of examples of change over time including: – natural phenomena changes (glaciers, deserts,) – social change (city growth,) – human interaction with the natural world (mining, deforestation, agriculture,) – natural disasters (hurricanes, tornado damage, flooding.)
Below are two examples of the trading cards, Mount St. Helens pre/post volcanic explosion and Las Vegas, Nevada population growth over time.
The cards provide side by side comparison images and also context about the images on the opposite side including information about the date of the images, satellites, bands used to create the images and location data.
If you view a location on through the browser you will get about 5 images you can review as well as context about the images.
