Join Scoop.it for Free
Share ideas that matter on the social web and experience
the benefits of curating the world's best content.
I don't have a Facebook, a Twitter or a LinkedIn account
Already have an account: Login
Global news with a spatial perspective: Interesting, current supplemental materials for geography students and teachers. http://geographyeducation.org
Curated by
Seth Dixon
 Your new post is loading...
Scoop.it!
Seth Dixon's insight:
Today was the first of the T3G Institute at the Esri headquarters and the wonderful team has shared great resources that I found incredibly useful for teachers to use great web maps. So what makes a great web map. A great web map should be highly interactive, intuitive, and be able to function at various scales. This video helps to show the power of maps to help tell a great story or to share spatial content. The presenters each shared an exemplary web map.
Tags: GIS, ESRI, mapping, cartography, geospatial, edtech, geography education, unit 1 GeoPrinciples. Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
Rising waters spilled onto flood plains and into cities across Germany. Central Europe has endured its worst flooding since medieval times.
Seth Dixon's insight:
If you having been following the news lately, central European countries such as Germany and Poland are experiencing major flooding right now. Compare this image above to one where the Elbe isn't flooding and you'll quickly be able to visualize extent of the flooding. Tags: Germany, remote sensing, disasters, environment, geospatial. Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
"And they've found many more faces, too – because they've actually built a computer program that sifts through Google Maps with facial-recognition technology to find..."
Seth Dixon's insight:
Tags: google, mapping, geospatial. Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
"The Landsat's natural-color imager scanned a swath of land 185-kilometers wide and 9,000 kilometers long (120 by 6,000 miles)—an unusual, unbroken distance considering 70 percent of Earth is covered with water. That flight path—depicted on the globe below—afforded us the chance to assemble 56 still images into a seamless, flyover view of what LDCM saw on April 19, 2013. Stretching from northern Russia to South Africa, the full mosaic from the Operational Land Imager can be viewed in this video."
Seth Dixon's insight:
We typically see remotely sensed images as a single, still rectangular grid...this stunning video shows what the image collection process would look like from the perspective of the satellite. This video is available to download in a variety of formats and resolutions. Tags: remote sensing, geospatial, unit 1 GeoPrinciples. 
Francisco Javier 's curator insight,
May 17, 6:43 PM
The Long Swath | @scoopit via @APHumanGeog http://sco.lt/... Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
Seth Dixon's insight:
This podcast explains the MOOC Maps and the Geospatial Revolution. It is designed to be an easy on-ramp to 21st century geospatial tools and any geography teacher hoping to modernize their skillset would do well to take this summer course from the Program of Online Geospatial Education at Penn State, taught by Dr. Anthony Robinson. Click here to register for free. Tags: GIS, teacher training, mapping, cartography, geospatial, edtech, geography education, unit 1 GeoPrinciples. Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
Seth Dixon's insight:
Ironically, some land use patterns become more visible as the sun goes down. There are some sharp borders in this image of Toronto that was taken by the Canadian astronaut, Chris Hadfield and it is a wonderful teaching image. Questions to ponder: Why is there such sharp divisions between the illuminated and obscure portions of the image? What does this sharp division say about the land use patterns? Would we see this pattern in the United States? Why or why not? What urban model(s) can help explain the spatial layout of Toronto? Tags: urban, planning, remote sensing, geospatial, Canada, models, unit 7 cities. Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
Free site dedicated to help teachers educate and engage students using Google Earth
Seth Dixon's insight:
GE Teach is a phenomenal site, designed by an AP teacher to bring geospatial technologies into the classroom in a way that is incredibly user-friendly. This site allows you to use Google Earth with clickable layers. With multiple data layers of physical and human geography variables, this interactive globe puts spatial information in powerful, yet fun, student-inspired platform. Click here for a video tutorial. Tags: google, virtual tours, geospatial, edtech. 
Kristen McDaniel's curator insight,
March 29, 9:54 AM
Use Google Earth in the classroom with clickable layering of maps. Great for bringing Geography into your classroom! Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
A new study using data from a pair of gravity-measuring NASA satellites finds that large parts of the arid Middle East region lost freshwater reserves rapidly during the past decade. "[This] data show an alarming rate of decrease in total water storage in the Tigris and Euphrates river basins, which currently have the second fastest rate of groundwater storage loss on Earth, after India," said Jay Famiglietti, principal investigator of the study and a hydrologist and professor at UC Irvine. "The rate was especially striking after the 2007 drought. Meanwhile, demand for freshwater continues to rise, and the region does not coordinate its water management because of different interpretations of international laws." Tags: water, environment, consumption, resources, environment depend, Middle East, Iraq.
Seth Dixon's insight:
This is a perfect example of geospatial technologies can lead to a better understanding of how the Earth's physical systems are changing because of human geography. Teaching geography is about showing how these systems are interconnected. Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
Detailed satellite images reveal the web of connections that sustain life on Earth.
Seth Dixon's insight:
"Earth From Space is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. Produced in extensive consultation with NASA scientists, NOVA takes data from earth-observing satellites and transforms it into dazzling visual sequences, each one exposing the intricate and surprising web of forces that sustains life on earth." This documentary shows something interesting for the physical geographer, human geographers, and geospatial technology specialists. In other words, this touches on just about all things geographic (with cool images!). The overarching theme is that so many things in this world that we wouldn't imagine are actually interconnected with excellent examples. Tags: remote sensing, geospatial, unit 1 Geoprinciples, physical. 
Kenneth Holzman's comment,
February 17, 7:37 PM
Thanks so much for this link! I'd completely missed this on PBS, and it is EXACTLY the kind of video I'm trying to get my AP Human Geography students to watch right now. This is getting shared with ALL my kids ASAP. :-)
dilaycock's comment,
February 18, 4:02 PM
I just love that Scoop.it allows resources to be shared so easily, and in a manner that is so accessible to students everywhere. Thanks Kenneth.
Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
Cornerstone Christian school 7th grade science project. The effects of Altitude on air pressure and temperature. Cameras: GoPro Hero2 video footage. Edited B...
Seth Dixon's insight:
This is the coolest Junior High geospatial technologies project ever. This actually recorded some nice remotely sensed images. You can actually do something similar yourself with this balloon kit. You can read about some successful attempts to do this with geography students and colleagues from @AndrewShears which can be seen here and another by @bricker that is worth looking at here. Tags: remote sensing, images, geospatial, edtech, geography education, unit 1 GeoPrinciples. Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
Seth Dixon's insight:
The Review of International Geographical Education Online (RIGEO) has recently published a new issue that contains this article about GIS education. While geographers promote GIS education, we need to study the impact, efficacy and pedagogy of GIS education more seriously as we plan for the future. Tags: GIS, mapping, cartography, geospatial, edtech, geography education. Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
Seth Dixon's insight:
You've seen the this image as a static map, as a video and as an adjusted cartogram here before. This link is especially intriguing because this same data has been added to Google Maps so a user can interactively explore this layer and compare it to daytime satellite imagery or a standard map (it can also be seen on an interactive globe on http://www.geteach.com/ ). The first impulse of most students is to note when analyzing this image is to note that the map will show us where people live, where the cities are or some other comment that speaks to the magnitude of the population in the white areas. Let them analyze this for more time, and they'll notice that population isn't the whole story of this image. A place like India shines, but less brightly than the eastern part of the United States. I like to point out that South Korea appears to be an island (because North Korea is literally blacked out). Politics, development, affluence and population information are all embedded in this image. As with all maps, the more information you have about the place in question (in this case, Earth), the more meaningful information you can extract out of the map. Tags: remote sensing, images, mapping, cartography, geospatial, edtech, geography education, unit 1 GeoPrinciples. Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
Seth Dixon's insight:
This set of 19 short essays (around 3-4 pages each) is a great supplemental text. I am eager to read them and other resources in the ESRI library. Tags: GIS, ESRI, mapping, cartography, geospatial, edtech, geography education, unit 1 GeoPrinciples. Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
|
Scoop.it!
"Many of us tend to think of Antarctica as a sheet of solid snow and ice. But, in contrast with its peer to the north, the southern pole's ice sheet lies atop a rocky continent. What are its features, its mountains and valleys, plains and coastlines? A new dataset from the British Antarctic Survey provides the most detailed map ever of the bedrock below, information scientists hope will enable them to better model the affects of climate change on the ice, whose melting will have an impact on climate the world over."
Seth Dixon's insight:
This video sheds some light on explorations to uncover truths about one of the most remote places on Earth. Tags: Antarctica, water, physical, remote sensing, geospatial. 
Johani Karonen's curator insight,
June 17, 4:46 AM
Talking about challanges - Amundsen and Scott sure had a tough one! Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
"I'm used to rivers that know what they're doing."
Seth Dixon's insight:
Even though Chris Hadfield's time on the space station is over, his twitter stream can still be a great source of images displaying the physical and human landscapes (and if you needed any more evidence that he's the coolest astronaut ever, watch his parting video singing David Bowie's Space Oddity).
This incredible image clearly demonstrates the fluvial processes that have creating and this and will continue to reshape this landscape. Meander scars, oxbow lakes, channel cutoffs, floodplains and point bars are all here in this gorgeous teaching image. Tags: physical, fluvial, geomorphology, erosion, landscape. 
Mary Patrick Schoettinger's curator insight,
May 30, 7:52 AM
Where nature and art collide. This is a beautiful image of nature doing her best to upset the skills PDF cartography! 
Peter Phillips's curator insight,
May 30, 7:52 AM
Over time, rivers snake across the whole of the floodplain available to them. On the Murray River in Australia, a combination of events has meant that the bed has moved over 80 kilometres back and forth. Its traces can be found throughout the landscape. Learning about its story is a life-long journey in itself. I recently completed a 1712km kayaking journey on this river. You can read about it here if you like. http://echuca-murraymouthkayakjourney.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/update-from-peter-phillips.html
This kind of movement over time can be seen in the following animation - a real eye-opener. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqOfP3gVR4s and another... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3ub6_VwReY Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
Seth Dixon's insight:
This interactive feature includes before and after satellite imagery of Moore, Oklahoma. With the remarkably desvasting tornado that hit this week, this is an user-friendly way to compare before and after images by using the swipe function.
Tags: remote sensing, disasters, environment, geospatial, esri. 
Allison Covert's curator insight,
May 26, 1:13 AM
This would be great to teach the power of tornadoes for Science! 
François Arnal's curator insight,
May 27, 2:03 AM
En cas de catatrophe naturelle, les sociétés d'imagerie satellitaire mettent à la disposition du public leurs images. Ici deux images sont superposées et un volet permet de constater l'étendue des dégâts. A remarquer le fait que la tornade suit une trajectoire précise épargnant certains lieux tout proches. Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
Exclusive timelapse: See climate change, deforestation and urban sprawl unfold as Earth evolves over 30 years.
Seth Dixon's insight:
This interactive feature includes various places that have experienced rapid environmental change in the last few decades. This is a simple way to show the power of remotely sensed data as well as massive environmental impact of rapid urbanization and globalization.
Tags: remote sensing, land use, environment, geospatial, environment modify, urban ecology. 
Lauren Jacquez's curator insight,
May 11, 7:15 PM
I suggest you watch to see the spatial patterns emerge!
Tracy Young's curator insight,
May 12, 6:12 PM
Very useful visual tool for exploring patterns of change Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
"Google Maps Engine makes it easy for you to create beautiful maps, share them with others, and reach your audience no matter where they are. It's built on the same platform that provides Google services to millions of people worldwide, so your users have a consistent and familiar experience wherever they are."
Seth Dixon's insight:
Google has become more and more involved with geospatial technologies and platforms. This new Maps Engine (still in beta testing) appears to be Google entry into the world of GIS. Maps Engine is not nearly as robust as ArcGIS Online or even Google Earth and it has many limitations (can't upload a CSV file with more than 100 data points, can't use KML or shapefiles, no archive of ready-made layers, etc). It's redeeming value lies in the simplicity of the platform; if all you want to do is draw your own points, lines and polygons on top of a map and be able to get started within 30 seconds, then this is worth exploring. Those features are incredibly intuitive and user-friendly and I foresee various educational possibilities using this in the classroom, but am still 'test-driving' the platform. Tags: google, GIS, geospatial, edtech, K12.
Johani Karonen's curator insight,
May 8, 4:08 AM
I love maps! Let's se what this little darling can do.
Francisco Javier 's curator insight,
May 12, 8:51 PM
Google Maps Engine | @scoopit via @APHumanGeog http://sco.lt/... Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
"Lake Manicouagan lies in an astrobleme in central Quebec covering an area of approximately 1206 square miles—an area half the size of Delaware. An astrobleme is a scar left on the Earth’s surface from an impact of a meteorite. Lake Manicouagan is the result of one of the largest identified asteroid or comet impacts on Earth. In the middle of the lake, on Rene-Levasseur Island, Mount Babel rises 3,123 feet into the air. Lake Manicouagan is thought to have formed about 212 million years ago plus or minus 4 million years. This happened when an approximately 3.1 mile-diameter asteroid crashed into Earth toward the end of the Triassic period. Some scientists speculate that this impact may have been responsible for the mass extinction that wiped out more than half of all living species." Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
Scraped clean and weighted down for thousands of years by Pleistocene ice sheets, Akimiski Island in James Bay provides a case study of how Earth's land surfaces evolve following glaciation. Tags: remote sensing, geospatial,Canada. Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
"Learn how advances in geospatial technology and analytical methods have changed how we do everything, and discover how to make maps and analyze geographic patterns using the latest tools."
Seth Dixon's insight:
When I was a graduate student at Penn State, I was introduced to some great people and programs and I'm glad to see that the institution has continued to excel and be a leader. You have probably heard of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) and been interested in seeing how this might change higher education in the future. This MOOC is a free 5-week course designed to be an introduction to mapping, GIS and geospatial technologies so you don't need to be a specialists with a mapping background: it's for beginners. I know that many geography teachers tell their students about GIS, but are afraid to teach with GIS because they are worried that it will be too hard. This is an easy on-ramp to 21st century geospatial tools and any geography teacher hoping to modernize their skillset would do well to take this summer course fromthe Program of Online Geospatial Education at Penn State, taught by Dr. Anthony Robinson. For more information on this, see this annoucement from Directions Magazine and from Penn State News. Tags: GIS, teacher training, mapping, cartography, geospatial, edtech, geography education, unit 1 GeoPrinciples. Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
"Satellites acquire images in black and white, so how is it possible to create the beautiful color images that we see on television, in magazines, and on the internet? Computers provide us with the answer.
Seth Dixon's insight:
Tags: remote sensing, images, geospatial, unit 1 GeoPrinciples. 
Ken Halpern's comment,
March 1, 1:23 PM
Very interesting to see how the process works. This is very helpful when trying to get a point across.
Conor McCloskey's comment,
March 4, 8:59 PM
The Electromagnetic scale always confused me in High School! Hahaha. I also didn't know that satellites only take pictures in black and white.
Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
30-second animation of the changes in U.S. historical county boundaries, 1629 - 2000. Historical state and territorial boundaries are also displayed from 178...
Seth Dixon's insight:
I love this time-lapse animation of all the county and state-level boundary changes in United States history. Would you like to see this in greater detail? Would you want to download the data and create your own visualization of this? The Atlas of Historical County Boundaries has all of this data as GIS shapefiles, Google Earth KMZ files and PDFs for the whole country as well as for each individual state. This project sponsored by The Newberry and the National Endowment for the Humanities has tremendous potential for use in the classroom for history and geography teachers alike. Tags: historical, USA, borders, time lapse, mapping, edtech. 
Sam Capron's curator insight,
January 30, 3:01 PM
What I find to be the most interesting aspect of this animation is that each fluctuation of the border has a story behind it. You could teach a really interesting class on just those small changes, and why they took place. 
Betty Klug's curator insight,
April 27, 3:50 PM
I love animation maps. Great for getting students interested in learning. Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
If you are up in space looking down on America west of the Mississippi, one of the brightest patches of light at night is on the Great Plains in North Dakota. It's not a city, not a town, not a military installation.
Seth Dixon's insight:
This patch of light is baffled me since clusters of light on this image almost always are connected to high levels of urbanization and North Dakota has no major population center of that magnitude. This is the Bakken formation, a new oil and gas field that is producing over 600,000 barrels a day. The lights are oil rigs that are lit up at night, but even more because many gas flares are burning leading locals to call the area "Kuwait on the Prairie." Oil men from far and wide are flocking to the rural, lightly populated area raising rents sky-high. This has caused a huge localized gender imbalance, changing the demographic and cultural character of the region because of the drastic the economic and environmental shifts in the area (see the national gender balance here). This is a great reminder that the physical and human geographies of a region are fully intermeshed one with another. Tags: resources, gender, environment, economic, migration. 
Heidi Zumbrun Bjerke's comment,
February 12, 9:52 PM
Use google earth and you can compare the two images.
Mary Patrick Schoettinger's comment,
February 12, 11:55 PM
that's an excellent idea, especially to have students suggest what the light might be in the photo. The question is , is the bright light a one time occurrence or does it continue?J
Mary Rack's comment,
February 13, 6:08 AM
I'm having trouble installing GoogleEarth on my iMac. Looking forward to the comparison. Big adjustment after years in the PC world.
Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
Scoop.it!
CIRES Fellow and NASA Chief Scientist Waleed Abdalati and CIRES Fellow Steve Nerem explain Remote Sensing and how it is used to study our planet. 'Like' CIRES…
Seth Dixon's insight:
These scientists explain some of the purposes and applications of remote sensing at a level that is accessible for just about any audience. Tags: remote sensing, geospatial, unit 1 Geoprinciples, K12.
dilaycock's curator insight,
January 4, 11:57 PM
Totally agree with Seth Dixon. This is a great video that explains remote sensing. 
nzgeogeek's curator insight,
February 4, 12:21 AM
These scientists explain some of the purposes and applications of remote sensing at a level that is accessible for just about any audience. Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
|
Outstanding... and beautiful map stories.
Incredible tools to teach geography and get kids excited about it! So cool!