Category Archives: Education

Earth Observation Day – Thursday, October 12, 2017

This year for Earth Observation Day we had a mini mapathon and a speaker.  Our mapathon efforts focused on a project  in Puerto Rico that was mapping features as part of the Hurricane Maria recovery efforts.  Then Daryl Herzmann presented about the Iowa Environmental Mesonet (IEM), a storehouse and distribution center for weather, satellite, and transportation data for the US. Daryl gave a brief history of IEM along with highlighting many of its uses. Click here to view Daryl’s powerpoint. 

Coming Soon! Earth Observation Day – Thursday, October 12, 2017

You are invited to the annual Earth Observation Day celebration in Durham 248 from 11am to 1pm on Thursday, October 12, 2017.

From 11am-12pm, we will be having a mapping event focused on humanitarian mapping projects in areas hit by recent natural disasters.  Bring your lunch and stay from 12-12:30, we will have a guest lecture from Daryl Herzmann about the Iowa Environmental Mesonet, a website which collects and displays environmental data for Iowa from various sources including Iowa Flood Center, Iowa Department of Transportation, National Weather Service, and Iowa State University – Agronomy. Read more about the Iowa Mesonet here: https://www.extension.iastate.edu/article/iowa-environmental-mesonet-data-used-thousands-every-day.

Please come and go as you are able. If you are interested in joining us, please fill out the RSVP form (https://goo.gl/forms/SVLH4qhWDqJvfPD03) so we can plan for computer space and chairs. Please spread the word. Thank you, I hope you can join us!  

Start Your Future Here – Part I

Recently, the ISU GIS Facility, in partnership with AmericaView, hosted two workshops as part of the 2017 Iowa 4-H State Conference, “Start Your Future Here.”  This conference is a good opportunity for students to try something new.   This was the third year that IowaView has participated in the 4-H conference. For many 4-Hers, this was their first experience with mapping and GIS. We offered two different workshops this year. One workshop was focused on GIS and mapping using the ESRI platform and the other workshop was focused on learning to use Open Street Map for assisting with humanitarian projects.

The first workshop, “Start Your Mapping Adventure Here,” was an introduction to GIS and mapping.  During the session students were presented with the basics of GIS and creating a map.  Then 4-Hers were able to complete several hands-on project to illustrate various mapping products.  

Examples of Park Map Designs

Students used ArcGIS Online to interact with and make sense of a news article about the migration crisis from Tunisia to the Italian island of Lampedusa. They learned how to use tools in ArcGIS Online to answer question related to the article. Some of the tools they explored included the Find box to quickly navigate to places on the map, map notes to mark locations on the map, and how to change basemap imagery to reveal different facets of a place by examining topography and photography. This exercise was based on an exercise found in an ESRI teacher training: “Teaching with GIS: Introduction to Using GIS in the Classroom.”

Next participants were divided into small groups and tasked with using ArcMap desktop to create a map of a new city park which they were asked to design. Through this exercise students learned how to navigate desktop, edit and remove features and then create a map and map properties (legend, north arrow, title.)  See examples of their maps to the right. The idea for this exercise came from materials put out by the National 4-H Council as part of a 2013 National Youth Science Day: Maps and Apps Activities.  The exercise suggested having students manually create layers on paper but we wanted to infuse the activity with technology and introduce 4-Hers to ArcMap.  

Finally, we explored several Story Maps from a very basic map to a multi-media interactive map. Here are two other great Story Maps examples showing to additional styles: the spyglass and cascade.   This gave the 4-Hers exposure to another mapping medium and possibly a way to display data for school projects or 4-H projects.

To learn more about the 4-H conference, check out this link to an article from the Alliance for Iowa State: State 4-H Conference Offers Teens a Complete Iowa State Experience, 6/28/2017.    

Earth Week 2017: Adopt the Planet

Happy Earth Week! This year NASA has created unique opportunity just in time for Earth Day for interested participants to “Adopt the Planet.”  There are 64,000 locations available from adoption.    

Credit: NASA https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/nasa-celebrates-earth-day-by-letting-us-all-adopttheplanet

When you visit the website you can fill in your name and then receive a certificate with your adopted patch of Earth.  The adoption certificate gives you specific coordinates of your location on our globe as well as satellite data layers relevant to your piece of Earth.  You can use WorldView, NASA’s web-based satellite viewing application, to explore your adopted point over time and with different layers.   

I received a point on the coast of Antarctica.  It was cool to explore a part of our planet that I don’t normally think about on a daily basis. With the WorldView application I was able to see how it changes over the seasons from solid ice to open ocean. WorldView even has the ability to animate these observations.

This outreach event allows us the appreciate our planet from space and helps us learn about some of the space instruments that are continuously monitoring and circling our planet.

Credit: NASA https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/nasa-celebrates-earth-day-by-letting-us-all-adopttheplanet

Have you visited Earth as Art yet?

Don’t miss your chance. This is a unique opportunity to see a melding of art, science, geography, and technology here in the Ames community.  Come see some great art.  

Kids and adults can stop in to make a color wheel or model of a Landsat satellite or search the images to complete the scavenger hunt.  The exhibit is running through Sunday, February 26, 2017.

Hours:
Thursday 4-7 pm; Friday 2-5 pm; Saturday 11 am -5 pm
Sunday Feb 19 & 26, 2-5 pm

Read more about the exhibit HERE.

Earth as Art Exhibit opens!

The opening reception for the Earth as Art exhibit is on February, 2, 5-8pm. Several younger visitors were in attendance.  They created model satellites, color wheels, and searched the gallery to complete the scavenger hunt.  There was gallery talk at 6:30 pm by Brent Yantis, the LouisianaView director and the exhibit collection curator, he explained how the images were selected and shared some of his favorite images with us. 

There was a reception of crudites and cheese as well as a King Cake that was brought from Louisiana. The King Cake tasted like a cross between a glazed doughnut and a cinnamon roll, filled with chocolate and cream filling. LouisianaView and IowaView are part of the larger AmericaView, nationwide consortium for remote sensing education, research, and geospatial applications.

Please join us – Thursday, February 2, 2017

IowaView and ISU GIS Facility will be hosting an art exhibit in the Design on Main gallery in February.  It will be a unique exhibit that is a fusion of art and science – we hope that the exhibit will inspire viewers with beautiful images from around our planet and also provide a platform for education (satellite imagery, geography, earth science, physics, and art.)

The opening reception for the exhibit is on February, 2, 5-8pm. We are planning to have a gallery talk at 6:30pm by Brent Yantis, the AmericaView collection curator as well as refreshments. AmericaView is a nationwide consortium for remote sensing education, research, and geospatial applications. For additional details visit our Earth as Art exhibit page.

How will you be celebrating this Martin Luther King Jr. Day?

“Life’s most persistent and urgent questions is: what are you doing for others?”

– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.


The ISU GIS Facility would like to invite you to spend part of your day with us.  


The ISU GIS Facility, in cooperation with IowaView, will be hosting a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service Event on January 16th, 2017 in Durham 206. The event will take place from 10am to 1pm.  Attendees will participate in a worldwide volunteer effort called Open Street Map – (OSM), a crowd-sourced map of the world that is open source, free and available for any use. OSM provides online web mapping tools for users to map roads, buildings, water bodies and features of interest using satellite imagery as a base.

Past projects have worked with humanitarian groups like the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders using OSM to coordinate mapping in areas with a critical need for new maps, past projects have included areas in western Africa fighting Ebola, hurricane affected areas in the Philippines or other emergencies or disasters around the world.

*No previous experience is necessary to participate – anyone can join us!*

If you are interested in participating in the ISU OSM Mapping Party, or have questions, please send an email to iowamapgive@gmail.com or visit https://www.iowaview.org/isu-osm-mapping-party-details/.

 

Save the date: Earth as Art Exhibit – February 2017

 

LouisianaView is loaning us their Earth as Art art exhibit for the month of February.  We are working to create a fun and educational art exhibit for all.  You will not want to miss this exciting event.  For a preview, visit Earth as Art online: http://eros.usgs.gov/imagegallery/earth-art-4.

earth-as-art-laview2

 

IowaView hosts a Successful Earth Observation Day!

We had a fun and informative Earth Observation Day.  Here are some highlights and pictures:

earth-observation-day-10_11_2016
  • There were 24 attendees.1011161113_resized
  • We had 15 mappers, who helped build a better basemap in for areas in Botswana.  Volunteers mapped dozens of roads and over 500 buildings during our mini-mapathon (45 mins)!  earth-observation-day-10_11_2016-botswana
  • Dr. Brian Hornbuckle shared with us about his research observing the earth with microwave satellites and ground sensors. If your are interested in learning more about the SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) satellite, NASA has a free webinar series (5 hour-long sessions) available through their Applied Remote Sensing Training (ARSET program).   img_7742