GIS Day Resources and Support
Having trouble planning out a GIS Day event? Visit http://www.gisday.com/support/index.html for information on materials, ideas, and even GIS Day gear!
It’s never to late to make GIS apart of your everyday lifestyle!
VERTICES, Skip Kielt – GIS Intern
Arr Matey!
Here is an event that Oregon State University hosted for GIS Day in 2006. It is a great example of involving children with GIS in relation to a topic that is fun for all! This is the article from the Gazette Times.
MARY ANN ALBRIGHT Gazette-Times reporter | Posted: Thursday, November 16, 2006
About 480 middle- and high-school students from Corvallis, Beaverton and Portland visited Oregon State University Thursday to celebrate international “GIS Day.”
They toured campus with global positioning system devices, listened to state climatologist George Taylor discuss weather prediction and pored over maps.
The biggest surprise came, however, when Dawn Wright, OSU geosciences professor and organizer of the event, appeared as her alter ego, Pirate Deepsea Dawn.
“A pirate, arrr,” the students yelled, bursting into wild applause.
Wright runs a lab on campus called Davey Jones’ Locker, focused on sea-floor mapping and marine and coastal geographic information systems.
“Davey Jones’ Locker really stands for the bottom of the ocean, and in our lab we map the bottom of the ocean with GIS,” she said.
Davey Jones also is a villain in the recent movie “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” and proved to be a popular character with Thursday’s crowd.
GIS is a method of creating and managing spatial data and associated attributes. It can be used for everything from cartography to land-use planning to habitat conservation.
GPS, which falls under the scope of GIS, uses satellites to determine precise locations and time references.
Wright and her team used data collected from submarines and research vessels to create an online map detailing their trips to American Samoa.
While at Pago Pago Harbor, they even discovered a shipwreck. It is believed to be the U.S.S. Chehalis, a 311-foot U.S. Navy gasoline tanker ship that sank following a gasoline explosion in 1949; nine people died when it went down.
Their Web site also includes links to video footage recorded up to 1,000 feet underwater, and gives close looks at starfish and stingrays.
In addition to underwater applications, the students learned about ways GIS is being used locally.
Theresa Valentine, a scientist and computer analyst in the College of Forestry, used GIS to zoom in on Cheldelin Middle School on a map projected in the LaSells Stewart Center auditorium.
“It’s not just a pretty map. It also contains data,” Valentine said.
Using Benton County’s Web site, Valentine was able to get information on the tax lots near the school. The map includes information about who owns which lot, its assessed and market values and the owner’s address.
“You might be surprised at all the information that’s available,” said Valentine, noting that these types of maps are useful to city planners and Realtors. The schools also can use them to set boundaries and route buses.
Valentine then zeroed in on Crescent Valley High School. She identified the nearby Jackson-Frazier Wetlands, as well as some 100- and 500-year floodplains.
A creek running through the school’s campus forms a 100-year floodplain, so that could be a problem every century or so, she said.
Valentine also showed the students a Web site where they can look at maps of the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest, and find out information about watersheds and climate stations there.
GIS Day is celebrated at more than 2,000 schools and organizations in 90 countries, and has become a tradition at OSU.
Last year, 11-year-old Anna Mai’s sister participated. This time it was Anna’s turn.
“It was fun,” said Anna, a seventh-grader at Pilgrim Lutheran School in Beaverton.
Her classmate, 12-year-old Amanda Walworth, also enjoyed the field trip.
“My dad has a GPS system, so I see him use it,” she said.
ON THE NET: To learn more about OSU Professor Dawn “Deepsea” Wright’s lab, Davey Jones’ Locker, see http://dusk.geo.orst.edu/djl/.
GIS Day 2009!
We are only one month away from GIS Day 2009! On November 18, more than 80 countries will be participating to raise geographic awareness throughout the world. Believe it or not GIS has become a large part of everyday life without most people even realizing it. GIS Day is the perfect way to learn and explore all the possibilities that GIS technology has to offer. There will be numerous activities and events planned or you can even host your own event. Be sure to participate in one of the greatest days of the year, GIS Day 2009!
The gisday.com website hosted by ESRI is a great source of information for events, activities, and GIS awareness.
Here is a link for activities for kids to participate in on GIS Day or any day. http://www.gisday.com/support/activities.html
Also, scroll through the posts and visit GIS4Kids.com for additional ideas on how children can learn about GIS.
VERTICES, Skip Kielt – GIS Intern
Geography Education in the US
Startling Fact: One in five young Americans (18-24 yrs) can not locate the United States on a map of the world!
“Geographic illiteracy impacts our economic well-being, our relationships with other nations and the environment, and isolates us from the world,” -National Geographic president John Fahey
Here are some activities for children that incorporate learning about geography from Educationworld.com
Map puzzles. Collect state and regional maps from around the United States. Cut selected pieces from those maps. (The size of the “piece” might vary depending on the grade you teach. In the middle elementary grades, the pieces might be about 2 inches square.) Students can use place names, natural features (lakes, rivers), and other clues on the map pieces to try to figure out which state each map piece is from. Students might do this activity in small groups. Each group might have copies of the same five map pieces. Which group can un-puzzle the map pieces first?
Literature around the world. Invite students to identify on a world map the locations of some of their favorite books and book characters. Among the characters that might be included are Paddington Bear (Peru), Heidi (Switzerland), Ferdinand the Bull (Spain), Strega Nona (Italy), Red Riding Hood (Germany), Madeline (France), and Ping (China).
Your town’s growing population. Collect population statistics for your town as far back as they are available. Students can create graphs to show how the town’s population has changed over the decades. How has population change affected the town?
Commuter graph. Help students create a graph to show how far their parents travel to work each day. A different bar will represent people who commute less than 5 miles, 6 to 10 miles, 11 to 20 miles, 21 to 30 miles, and more than 30 miles. Provide a map for students to show the different places people travel.
Map your school region. Create a map that shows the areas in which students live. Invite each student to add a pin to the map to indicate the location of his or her home. What conclusions can students draw from the map? Do more students live in one “region” of the “school region” than in others? Why might that be so?
For more information and activities visit http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson071.shtml
VERTICES, Skip Kielt – GIS Intern
