Category Archives: Outreach

USGS Earthshots: Satellite Images of Environmental Change

By Activity, Article, Education, Imagery, Lesson Plan, Observation, Outreach, Resource, , , , ,

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.

The cards provide side by side comparison images and also context about the images on the opposite side including information about the date of the images, satellites, bands used to create the images and location data.

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.

Iowa Map Contest 2020 – Entries due 5/13/2020

By Activity, Education, Event, Iowa Map Contest 2020, Outreach, , ,

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.



All images are from the Noun Project authors Sergey Demushkin, Made X Made, Adrien Coquet, and Andrejs Kirma.

AmericaView Educational Resources – College-Level

By AmericaView, Education, Outreach, Resource, , ,

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/

What’s your GIS Story?

By Article, Education, Geography Awareness Week, Outreach,

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.

TELL YOUR GIS STORY

A Great Day For Earth Observation – Part II

By Earth Observation Day, Education, Event, Outreach, , , , ,

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.

Beverly Conrad discussing a feature with mapathon participants.

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.

Loess Hills: Iowa Landforms Revealed

By Education, Imagery, IowaLandformsRevealed, Outreach, , , ,

Obscured from view by vegetation and built structures, Iowa’s often subtle landforms are revealed through a LiDAR-derived bare earth digital elevation model in a Geographic Information System. Geological and human made features can be seen in this series of LiDAR color hillshade maps from across the State.

Loess

Deep deposits of wind-blown silt define the Loess Hills region of western Iowa. Intricate drainage networks and agricultural terraces are visible in this map from along the West Nishnabotna River near Hamburg.

Click on image to explore.
This image is of part of the Loess Hills in southwest Iowa.

Algona Moraine: Iowa Landforms Revealed

By Imagery, IowaLandformsRevealed, Outreach, , , ,

Obscured from view by vegetation and built structures, Iowa’s often subtle landforms are revealed through a LiDAR-derived bare earth digital elevation model in a Geographic Information System. Geological and human made features can be seen in this series of LiDAR color hillshade maps from across the State.

Algona

The elevated curved features in this map are glacial moraines deposited during the most recent period of glaciation in north-central Iowa. The largest in this view is called the Algona Moraine.

The Algona Moraine is located in north central Iowa.