Hello everyone! This is just a quick note to share some information that was forwarded my way by some colleagues of mine.
The first touches upon a posting I had a few weeks ago regarding the “imagine Niagara” video and survey created by the Niagara Region where people were asked for their input of their vision for Niagara in 2063. I suggested that the video and survey be shared from teacher to colleague and teacher to student.
It would appear that Niagara Region has created a primary and secondary student poster and essay contest, (maybe the Geospatial Niagara suggestion had something to do with it… who knows). Anyway, details of the competition can be found at the “imagine Niagara School Contest“.
The contest is broken down in two sections – Grades 1 – 8 where entrants are asked to create a poster showing what they imagine Niagara will be like in the future. Here is a link to the contest poster and more details. For the Grades 9 – 12 contest, entrants are asked to write a 300 word essay sharing their vision for Niagara. Here is a link to the contest poster. In each case the prize for the winning entry is a 16GB iPad Mini. This competition is a great way to share and encourage the exploration of Niagara’s geography with your students. Help them to become invested in their community. They are our leaders of tomorrow! Deadline for both age groups is Friday, November 8, 2013.
The second item was forwarded to me via Twitter and is an article titled “Five ways to turn your students into citizen scientists“. Crowd sourcing is quickly becoming a valuable tool in the collection of geospatial data towards the investigation and analysis to solve problems and to contribute to valuable open data sets. This article includes five examples (not all geospatial) of research currently being undertaken which encourages citizens and schools to become involved in aiding the research. There are many, MANY more projects out there. In Ontario, an organization that actively encourages student involvement in data collection is the Association for Canadian Educational Resources. Also included in student and citizen science is “TreeOcode Niagara“. We will be actively encouraging students and schools to take part in tree data collection for their school yards and surrounding neighbourhoods.
Until next time…