As new tools and instructional resources become available, and we rediscover important items, we will post them here. Re-visit regularly.

2023-24 Competition Webinars

Several webinars of interest to state leaders and helpers, and to educators, will take place this year. See each link for info.

  1. Tue Sept 19, 2023, 2:00-2:30pmEDT: "Learn How to Help Kids in Your State Create Competitive GIS Projects," with Directions Magazine. See event info and follow-up essay.
  2. Thu Nov 16, 2023, 8:00-9:00pmEDT: "ArcGIS Online Competition," with NCGE and Esri T3G as co-sponsors. Access recording.

Competition Result Webinars

Esri T3G (Teachers Teaching Teachers GIS) has hosted Competition Result webinars for 2021, 2022, and 2023. See each entry for the correct link.

  1. Thu, June 15, 2023: "The 2023 Competition Results See event info.
  2. Thu, June 16, 2022: "The 2022 Competition Results See event info.
  3. Thu, June 17, 2021: "The 2021 Competition Results See event info.

2022-23 Competition Meetup Series

A quartet of meetups (=webinars) for state leaders and educators. These were aimed at adults wanting to help students participate effectively. (There are instances where you can see "the power of one," but best success "takes a village.") The 2023 Competition was the last year of "states managing funds;" in the 2024 event, NCGE is managing that for all states and awardees. The rest of the info from 2022-23 is a close fit for 2023-24.

  1. Thu Oct 27, 2022: "Getting Started" (~80/20 for leaders/educators) View recording.
  2. Thu Nov 10, 2022: "Getting Serious" (~60/40 for leaders/educators) View recording.
  3. Thu Jan 12, 2023: "Encouraging Students" (~40/60 for leaders/educators) View recording.
  4. Thu Mar 9, 2023: "The Final Push" (~20/80 for leaders/educators) View recording.
Several publicly visible webinars from the recent past can help teachers and students plan for participation in the competition. (Some require registration to view.)
  • 2020 "Mapping Hour" video series; see Episodes listing. All 20 episodes are useful for skills and background: video series
  • 2019 ArcGIS Online Competition Winner Interviews, on-site at 2019 Esri User Conference: Esri video
Competition Postcard It's handy to have a postcard about the Competition. This file includes two 8.5-inch x 5.5-inch elements that can be used in presentations or to create an 8.5x11 printout or dual-sided 8.5 x 5.5 postcard. It features the 2022 HS and MS winners alongside snapshots of their creations.
The Teachers Teaching Teachers GIS (T3G) crew generated some graphics that can be useful for educators to contemplate or share with students. (The handouts include important supporting text.) Of these, the most valuable for doing projects are these two:
  • Instructional Use of GIS: This is what teachers need to consider. Strategy 5 is an enticing goal, but aiming too high too early leaves many learners (of any age) frustrated, while aiming too low for too long leaves them bored.
  • Geographic Inquiry Process: This is what students need to do in the competition; it is the approach used by GIS professionals for decades to answer a question.
Multiple blogs can give important guidance to teachers and students when thinking about participating in the Competition.
It's always valuable to learn techniques for designing a viewer's experience and improving communication.
  • Review the Competition's latest guidelines for elements to emphasize, include, and exclude. Pay close attention to Design/Judging Criteria.
  • See the national winners from 2023, 2022, 2021, and the synopsis of state winners from 2020; these reflect the most recent project design guidelines. See also the national winners from 2019, 2018, 2017 for high quality presentations under the original guidelines.
  • See the rich collection of ArcGIS StoryMaps Resources to learn about general design elements and explore skills for making effective use of special capabilities
  • See another rich collection of example ArcGIS StoryMap Stories to consider specific examples of above design elements and techniques implemented
  • The 2021 ArcGIS StoryMap Challenge for Oceans webinar (August 2021) included an excellent 28-min step-by-step demo (YouTube video segment, 41:30-1:09:15) Making an ArcGIS StoryMap
  • The StoryMap Team's YouTube Channel has a bank of videos, including extended presentations and deep dives into topics, but also short, focused, tool-centered how-to movies.
  • The Get to Know ArcGIS StoryMaps pathway on the Learn ArcGIS site has a modest series of items that include some longer and some shorter presentations or lessons about assembling an ArcGIS StoryMap.
There are many choices to think about for data, but they fall into a few classes. For broad collections and the state and local collections, one way to start is to visit your desired group's website and use their search tool to seek "GIS" or "data." Alternatively, do a standard internet search using as keywords [your topic] [your state] [GIS data]. Data created by professionals can be very valuable, but may not address your question closely enough, while data generated by you may be on topic, but not up to professional standards. You may find data that is ready to add to your map (e.g. a "web feature service") or that needs some work by you (e.g. a PDF table, or a zipped shapefile).
  • Broad collections of professional data:
    • Esri Living Atlas - try the "Browse" tab
    • Federal agencies (e.g. USGS, NOAA, Census, etc)
    • National or regional nonprofit groups (e.g. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Appalachian Regional Commission, etc)
  • State and local collections of professional data
    • Governmental agencies (state, county, city, municipality, school district, etc)
    • Nonprofit groups (watershed groups, community groups)
  • Data you generate
    • You can collect data using Survey123 or FieldMaps or QuickCapture
    • You can set up data collection instruments, such as a survey, to be filled in by other people
There are excellent options for instruction about how to use the software of the ArcGIS School Bundle, available free to K12 schools for instructional use.
  • For an educator just getting started, a good ramped and scaffolded intro is Getting Started for Educators. This document introduces people to thinking geographically and working with GIS data to explore and investigate, using National Geographic MapMaker, and moves them to requesting an ArcGIS School Bundle, and learning to use various tools.
  • The 2020 MappingHour video series was produced at the onset of COVID-19 lockdown, built for educators and parents. See the episode list.
  • The K12 ArcGIS Online Organization's section "01.Instruction Docs" includes links to useful resources.
  • See this summary of Smart Mapping strategies, within a collection of Story Maps.
  • Esri Training offers software instruction on all of Esri's products. Save for the "Secondary Students" learning plan, users must be signed in with username with "Esri access enabled," which School Bundle admins can set up for any/all Org members, and which will open up "Maintenance required" instruction. Because they are signed in, users can build a training history.
  • Esri Press offers both hardcopy and digital version books.
A big challenge for all participants is the design of the project. What topic do you want to look at, and what will you create as your end product?
  • Geography is essentially about three questions:
    1. What's where?
    2. Why is it there?
    3. So what?
  • Similarly, there are three basic project types:
    1. data report - a simple recitation of "what's where," such as "Here is the distribution of [A] in our region." (Without a "why" or "so what," or analytical comparisons, these projects run the risk of being rather "ho-hum.")
    2. analysis of relationships - going beyond "what's where" by clarifying why the patterns came to exist, or how different patterns were detected, such as "These new data sets showed better how factors x/y/z led to the distribution of [A] in our region."
    3. synthesis and evaluation - integrating patterns and relationships to show the importance of these, or deepening the understanding of the relationships, or exploring how things might be made better, such as "The uneven distribution of [A] in our region, caused by factors x/y/z, generates challenges 1/2/3, which might be addressed by strategies i/ii/iii."
  • Each project might involve a lot of work. Each type could be an award-winning project, depending on how well the project is designed and executed. Generally, "data report" projects are simplest to do, while "synthesis and evaluation" projects are most complex. There is no clear boundary here; projects can incorporate all three components in different degrees.
  • The best strategy for students is to identify an analytical question driving their project, such as:
    1. Where is this invasive species most common in our region, and where are the zones most in need of protection against it?
    2. Why do some homes in this area suffer more flooding than others?
    3. How can we reduce bicycle-car accidents in our region?

Copyright 2021. Esri GIS Education.