GIS Day!

I created my own GIS Day celebration on Wednesday April 12^th, 2017.  With three of my four children as a captive audience we gathered around the kitchen table.  My plan was to show them what GIS/Mapping was like before Google maps, smartphones, and even personal computing devices; yes, I am that old.

We began by looking at a printed map of the southeastern United States that I had to pay $8 for at the local gas station.   We then pretended we were traveling from our home in Niceville, FL to Grandma’s house in Raleigh, NC.   During my childhood, my dad would have my sisters and I look at printed maps and plan our trip.   My mom preferred to avoid interstate highways, so we often had interesting routes to calculate.   I showed my kids the map scale in the legend and how I would use it to estimate our travel distance and time for two routes; one via Atlanta, GA and the other through Jacksonville, FL

Next, we opened Google Maps and I showed them how Google has not only enabled you to instantaneously view map route distances and travel times, but you can also view restaurants, hotels, shopping, etc. nearby.   I explained that you didn’t have these options when traveling in my childhood.   We also briefly looked at Google’s My Maps where you can create customized maps.  https://www.google.com/maps/about/mymaps/

The printed map displayed latitude and longitude lines which we discussed and then compared to the lat/long lines on our family globe; yes, we actually have one.  My kids already think I am so old, but I explained that I grew up with only a globe, atlas, and maps.   Now they can see virtually anything, anywhere.   We briefly discussed the equator and the prime meridian as my 8- year-old has been discussing geography and topography recently in 2^nd grade while creating his own “continent”.  

Our discussion then segued into satellites and GPS.   I showed them images from the recently deployed GOES-16.   A recent NPR post showed images from the lightning mapper.  http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/03/06/518776626/watch-tracking-lightning-strikes-from-space

Seeing the lightning images sparked a conversation about the light spectrum.   Everybody but me knew that bees can see ultraviolet wavelengths.   The infrared lightning images sparked my middle school girls to let me know about the “thermal camera” in Photo Booth on my iMac and how it always shows the kitchen is hot.

We then went to the GOES website and found a multitude of links that were terrific. http://www.goes-r.gov/spacesegment/glm.html

The kids really liked the Lego Model under the Outreach tab.   There also are great student and educator resources.

Since my high school student missed our Wednesday event, I thought I should add that after reading Week 5’s GIS in Education reading assignments, I shared some links with her since she is taking AP Human Geography.   GIS had been briefly discussed in her class but the ConnectEd site had some impressive Social Studies lessons.  http://www.esri.com/connected

Always fun to learn with and from others.  The kids were engaged and I learned, too!

Reid/Thrush GIS Day - April 12, 2017