Celebrate New Jersey! Who said New Jersey wasn’t cool?
Celebrate New Jersey!
Last year, my sister and I helped out an organization (Celebrate New Jersey) that was hosting a competition for students to raise awareness about the Garden State.
Students from different areas submitted essays describing a key aspect of New Jersey, or a key individual in New Jersey history. Now—to the fun part! We mapped the aspect or individual the student wrote about as a single point in the map of New Jersey. Each point contained the photos of each student along with their essay. After mapping dozens of students’ works for hours, the final product was an organized, interactive showcase of all the applicants’ works which could be viewed by friends, families and other students!
To view the site, visit:
-Joanne I.
Integrating GIS technology for Educational Use
Mappler technology is an innovative use of google maps to benefit educational and community organizations. Two key factors make Mappler-based projects so useful: community involvement and community improvement. Mappler allows widespread community involvement into one project. All you have to make is an account, learn the gimmicks of the technology (which isn’t very hard) and you’re set to go!
To provide an example of the type of projects that use Mappler, students can use it to track trends in history and formulate their own conclusions. For an example, a student could map all the places in New England key inventions were made in, adding a paragraph or two to go with each mapped area. The final result should show the area of England that gave birth to some of the most historically important inventions. But it doesn’t have to end there! Not only would the project help students digest information about inventions quickly for the upcoming test, but students next year could add inventions they thought they were missing into the final map. (By the way such a project exists!)
New Brunswick Train Station Access Survey
The rise of gas prices has caused people to take drastic measures when it comes to commuting, by either getting rid of their gas guzzling vehicles and purchasing more fuel efficient ones or choosing a different form of transportation such as, riding their bikes. In downtown New Brunswick, one would find that there are bike racks close to the train station for this purpose. Recently, GIS interns, Asad Hussain and Jocelyn Im, went out and conducted a survey of the area; they found that there are a number of bike racks, and in some areas overflowing with bikes. However, they found that because so many spots were taken, many bike owners had only the option of chaining their bikes to light poles, stop signs, and etc. Furthermore, they discovered that the streets Somerset, Hamilton, and Easton, either had at least one bike rack or none also causing bikers to leave their bikes chained to makeshift bike racks. Due to the lack of bike racks in the area, several bikes were chained to telephone poles and street signs.
-asad hussain & jocelyn im
Map.rst2.edu
Gis4Kids has created an interactive mapping portal that helps teachers in Ramapo College’s Revitalizing Science Teaching program to create their own projects using Mappler and Remote Sensing Technology (RST2).
The project will be appropriate for a specific grade level and curriculum.
Teachers will institute this application as a part of their lesson plan, not only helping students to manage information but also to sharpen their computer skills.
http://map.rst2.edu/
-jocelyn im
NY Restroom
Although many people may take the NY Restroom project for granted , we have to look back to the many instances when we have had to find the closest restroom to where we were. This project provides the public with the location as well as the description of the bathroom facilities in New York. Whenever there is a necessity to go the toilet, we just need to need to take our cellphones (or any other mobile internet device) and connect to the internet to find out where is the closest one is. Without this project, many New Yorkers would not be able to find restrooms with ease. They would probably have to resort to the “somewhere else” in order to relieve themselves.
The Mappler application serves to comfort the public, by helping both New Yorkers and tourists locate a quick and easy route to their destination.
This project was recognized by the New Yorker, a prestigious magazine that is renowned for many years. You can check it out in the March 27, 2006 edition of New Yorker to see the article.
-jocelyn
GIS is used as an Artwork
Not only is GIS used to provide information to communites and organizations, but it can also be utilized as an element of artwork. While I was surfing the net, I came across this artist named Nikolas Schiller who has gone beyond the limits of art design. His unconventional approach uses GIS as part of his artwork. His artwork is truly amazing because he distorts real locations using GIS aerial photographs to make his works a masterpiece! His site is can be found at: http://www.nikolasschiller.com/blog/.
-jocelyn
Background
GIS4KIDS is a group of people who put time and effort into improving the community. It aims to allow community members to interact with each other in different projects. We hope that people in the community will get involved with GIS4KIDS projects by helping to gather information to place in the databases for each of these community interactive projects. GIS4KIDS also looks forward to having schools and other academic programs utilize the Mappler application in their curriculum. Thank you for sparing your time to view the summaries below. After reading GIS4Kids’ contributions below, I hope that you will be interested in participating in its effort.
-Jocelyn
Montgomery Township-Interactive Maps for Kids
This website allows kids to interact with the Mappler Application by inputting special locations in Montgomery Township. These locations include historic sites, top 10 Businesses, Roads, Railroads, Streams, Pathways, Schools, Buildings, airport, Parks & Golf Courses. Kids become more familiar with the icons and geography in Montgomery Township. This not only sharpens their skills in using internet applications but also their skills in locating places and in history.
-jocelyn
http://www.gismap.us/mtkid/
Community Mapping -Charlotte, Mecklenburg, North Carolina
This is similar to the project below . However, it is managed by high school students who seek an IT career in the future. Specific locations are inputted in this Mappler utility and are described in detail. These places are also the locations where people from our community often go to. This program not only serves as a special project for these students, but also serves as a convenience for those who have arrived in this area with no knowledge of where to go.
-jocelyn
http://www.communitymap.net/charlotte/
Mapping Communities (For K-12 School Districts)-Bernard Township Public Schools, NJ
http://www.communitymap.net/bernards/
Bernard Township has created a community mapping project that provides information on specific locations visited daily by people in our community. Many schools have participated in collecting and presenting useful information. The names and addresses of locations are given, as well as general information and comments from online users. We hope to increase the amount of data by increasing the participation of community members.
-Jocelyn
