CGA is Participating in the Statewide Community of Practice for the Content, Literacy, Inquiry, and Citizenship (CLIC) Project (AKA H-SS Framework Rollout 2.0)
The CGA has an ongoing partnership with SUHSD and ISTEP / California Global Education Project to support the district’s World Geography and Global Issues Course and use it to develop new and innovative ideas for inquiry-based instruction and student engagement. The course has incorporated a year-ending action research project, and this year the work of students was showcased in the first ever Student Conference/Showcase on Issues of Personal, Local, & Global Significance. The event was the brainchild of teachers Kelly Leon and Gina Vattuone, and both the CGA and CGEP stepped forward to help secure speakers, provide refreshments, and offer critical feedback to the students presenting their research.
Students in Dr. Kate Swanson’s Qualitative Methods in Geography upper division course took on a special assignment last year. They constructed a research project that examined young people’s geographical knowledge, global awareness and perspectives on geography education. The young people under study included both undergraduates at San Diego State University and high school students in Sweetwater Union High School District who had taken the district’s World Geography and Global Issues course. While one finding is that there is still a lot of room for improvement in young people’s geographical knowledge, the report also indicates that young people have increasingly global concerns and see geography courses as extremely useful in helping them to make sense of the issues confronting and connecting people around the world. You can review the report here.
There are some interesting excerpts from interviews conducted with 24 Sweetwater students. For example,
Question: Do you think American students need a geography education?
Answer: “Yeah, because I don’t think most kids know what is going on in the world. Like, I don’t think a person who doesn’t have a geography class knows what’s going on in Syria…”
The Houston Metro area and large areas of southeast Texas have been devastated by record flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey. There was tragic loss of life, and astronomically expensive damage to property and infrastructure. There will be a lot of discussion about how more frequent severe storms are a part of global climate change, and we can also focus on the science of weather forecasting, which continues to advance with new computational models and satellite data being utilized. But a very important point for us to reflect upon is how we could have done a better job of planning how we built our cities and infrastructure to protect against this loss of life and costly damage to property.
The fact is, catastrophic flooding in the Houston area was a highly predictable event. The National Flood Hazard Map maintained by FEMA can be viewed online here. Once the map is open, you can Continue reading Understanding Natural Hazard Risks: Hurricane Harvey, the California Megaflood of 1861-62, and the Future
The CGA’s first ever statewide GIS mapping competition for 4th through 12th grade students has concluded. 5 students projects have been selected as state finalists in each of two divisions. The authors of each project will be awarded a prize of $100, and the projects will be advanced to the national competition. 5 other projects have been selected for Honorable Mention.
The CGA wants to thank:
Without further ado, we present the winners. Continue reading BREAKING NEWS – Winners of My California GIS Mapping Competition
Janet Brewster
GIS Specialist, California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Continue reading Meet the Judges for the My California GIS Mapping Exhibition and Competition
UPDATE:
With registration for the competition now closed, the CGA is happy to report that 29 schools have registered for the competition. That could mean as many as 145 student entries in the state final!
An illustrious panel of eleven judges has stepped forward to evaluate and rank the student entries, so we are all set for an exciting competition. Thank you to all of our volunteer judges!
Click here to see a map of schools registered for the competition.
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The California Geographic Alliance is hosting an exciting statewide mapping showcase and competition that encourages middle (4th-8th grade) and high school (9th-12th grade) students to harness the power of Geographic Information Systems and get connected with their state by producing an online map that focuses on stories, issues, or ideas that are important to them.
Registrations due March 15, 2017!
Go to the contest page for full details.
Thanks to the Northern California URISA Chapter and the California Geographic Information Association for their generous support of this effort!
Planning on attending the California Council for the Social Studies Conference in Sacramento, March 3-5?
The CGA is proud to be a Silver Sponsor of the conference, and we are even more excited to be sponsoring an amazing array of sessions and workshops. Come visit the booth in the exhibit hall to learn about the latest resources and see some incredible maps, and please check out these great sessions.
On November 15, the topic of the day at the California Department of Education was Geographic Information Science. More specifically, an internal event organized by CDE staff encouraged staff from a number of different departments within CDE to explore the potential of GIS as a tool in education.
The event had three components aimed at engaging the audience of education professionals. CGA Director Tom Herman and CGA Geospatial Technology Coordinator Dr. Ming-Hsiang Tsou joined Dr. Hugh Howard (American River College) and a GIS Specialist for the Army Corps of Engineers on an expert panel. A highlight of the day was hearing from a group from the Math Science & Technology Magnet Academy at Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights. 
The students attended with their outstanding English teacher, Alice Im, and presented their work examining relationships between school segregation and graduation rates and exploring environmental racism by comparing the health problems and government responses related to the Porter Ranch gas leak and the Exide Technologies toxic contamination case in Vernon. The CGA also hosted an informational table with our friends from The History Project at UC Davis to share GeoInquiries and how we are helping educators to engage their students in geographic inquiry using GIS. Continue reading CGA Supports GIS Day Event at CDE
