AmericaView has a series of over 70 Earth image puzzles to encourage people of all ages to engage with satellite imagery and learn more about remote sensing by offering a fun challenge. The puzzles can be made to match ability or time available by choosing the number of pieces from 12 to 110 pieces. There are also options that allow the pieces to be shuffled or the border to be completed.
Any way you choose, check out these puzzles.
Google Earth Engine is a platform for exploring and analyzing satellite imagery. It is available for academic, non-profit, business and government users.
Several members of the AmericaView community have created tutorials to provide a foundation to quickly begin learning and using Google Earth Engine (GEE). If you are new to GEE, you will want to start with this Google Earth Outreach tutorial. You may need to sign-up for a GEE account with an existing Gmail email address.
For a list of additional tutorials visit the AmericaView GEE Tutorial page: https://americaview-old.ssec.wisc.edu/program-areas/education/google-earth-engine-tutorials/.
VirginiaView is excited to announce the release of Working wih Lidar Using ArcGIS Pro. It is available for free via Kindle unlimited or in paperback on Amazon for $60.
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.
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.
Other Resources: Tracking Change Over Time (teacher guide): https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/133/pdf/tracking-packet_web.pdf
Lesson Plan – Investigating Deforestation Throught An Earth Systems View Using Landsat: https://mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov/lesson-plans/investigating-deforestation-through-earth-systems-view-using-landsat
IowaView has trading cards available. Please contact Amy Logan for more information.
Just wanted to put out a reminder that the Iowa Map Contest is still going on. It’s a great opportunity for students in grades 4-12 to learn how to tell a story about Iowa’s special places using a story map. Also there are great prizes – $100 and a chance to go to the national map contest.
If you need help getting started, visit the official website and please read the earlier post for more details or send us an email.
AmericaView College-Level Remote Sensing Resources
GeorgeView – AmericaView University
Website: http://gaview.org/moodle30f/
IowaView – GIS and Mapping Task Sheets
Website: https://www.extension.iastate.edu/communities/gis/quicktasksheets
MinnesotaView – Remote Sensing 101
Website: https://minnesotaview.rs.umn.edu/education
MontanaView – Python and R
Website: http://www.montana.edu/montanaview/
NewHampshireView – Remote Sensing Webinars
Website: http://www.nhview.unh.edu/educations_webinars.html
VirginiaView – Remote Sensing Tutorials
Website: https://www.virginiaview.cnre.vt.edu/education.html
WestVirginiaView – Intro to GIS and R Courses
Website: http://www.wvview.org/course_directory.html
VermontView – Youtube Videos – Intro to GIS and Remote Sensing
Website: https://www.youtube.com/user/joneildunne/videos
AmericaView – Google Earth Engine Tutorials
Website: https://americaview.org/program-areas/education/google-earth-engine-tutorials/
AmericaView – Educational Resource Portal
Website: https://americaview.org/program-areas/education/resources/
A few years ago the Iowa Geographic Information Council (IGIC) asked members to share stories of how members became interested in geospatial technology. Click here to read those stories. It is interesting to read all the different ways people get involved – often through school, other times through a work project, even through life events (hurricanes, Disney World, 4-H, etc.) No matter what path brought you to GIS; we’re glad you are here. Please consider sharing your story on the IGIC website as well.
The second part of Earth Observation Day was dedicated to using OpenStreetMap to remotely map Wayland, Iowa and Mindanao region of the Philippines.
Amy Logan, an IowaView staff member, gave a brief introduction to remote sensing and OpenStreetMap. Then mappers began working on a TeachOSM task – Improving the Iowa OSM Basemap: Wayland, Iowa (https://tasks.teachosm.org/project/981). Beverly Conrad, the city clerk of Wayland came for the mapathon and was able to provide local knowledge about the areas participants were mapping. New mappers were encouraged to do the OSM iD Editor Walk-through before they began mapping. It provides users with a nice hands-on introduction of the OpenStreetMap interface and how to create data.
Wayland is a small town (population: 966) in southeast Iowa that has wanted to move towards a GIS asset management system, yet much of their city needed to be mapped. As a result of the volunteer efforts of our 22 mappers during the Earth Observation Day mapathon event, partcipants mapped over 70% of the city, including over 470 buildings as well as sidewalks, alleys, parks, and other points of interest. Below is a before and after screenshot of the OpenStreetMap basemap for the City of Wayland, Iowa.
Thank you, Mappers!
The second project was a Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Task improving the basemap in the Philippines to promote food security. This project added details to the basemap such as minor roads and path, buildings, and farmland.
