NEARC Fall 2015: Full Schedule

Welcome to the technical sessions schedule for the 2015 Annual Fall NEARC Conference.

NEW THIS YEAR! The technical schedule is capable of being sorted by date (i.e, Monday, Nov. 9) or track (i.e. USGS Hydro). You can also search for a presentation title (i.e. Harmonizing the NHD and WBD Datasets in Maine), key term (i.e. NHD), or presenter last name (i.e. O’Neil-Dunne). The sort and search functions can be found on the navigation panel on the right side of this page. If you hover over the "Schedule" button, you’ll also see different schedule view options (i.e. Grid or Simple). Try selecting each of them to see which view you prefer.

MY SCHEDULE FEATURE: It is not required of you to create a Sched.org account to use this site but if you do so, you’ll be able to use the "My Schedule" feature which allows you to create your own schedule for the conference. Click the "Sign Up" button in the top right corner of this page to create a Sched.org account.

MAIN NEARC WEBSITE: Click here to return to the main NEARC conference website for poster abstracts, GIS Educators Day schedule, and full conference schedule at-a-glance.

8:00am EST

GIS Educators Day Registration & Continental Breakfast

Sunday November 8, 2015 8:00am - 8:30am EST
North Prefunction

GIS Educators Day

8:30am EST

Welcome Remarks & Introductions/ Overview of the Day

Sunday November 8, 2015 8:30am - 9:00am EST
Green Mountain Ballroom

GIS Educators Day

9:00am EST

Lightning Previews of the Morning Sessions

Sunday November 8, 2015 9:00am - 9:30am EST
Green Mountain Ballroom

GIS Educators Day

9:45am EST

A Potpourri of Strategies to Integrate GIS in Higher Education Courses

Rebecca Boger, Brooklyn College

The rapidly evolving ArcGIS Online (AGO) is changing how GIS is taught in undergraduate and graduate
introductory GIS classes. Additionally, AGO’s more intuitive interface makes integrating GIS in non-GIS classes much easier, decreasing the amount of time students need as prep to be able to use the lessons without frustration. As I make the transition from desktop to online GIS, I am exploring new strategies using face-to-face, online, and blended formats, and developing new materials to integrate the use of GIS in environmental and urban sustainability courses. These strategies include individual and team projects, internships, and collaborations with local organizations in particular, New York City Parks and Recreation. The ESRI Collector App engages the students with their own data collection, analysis and visualization while map stories allow students to be creative in their use of maps, photos, videos and text. These tools, along with others, promote place-based pedagogy while enhancing spatial literacy and systems thinking. In this session, I will share some of my strategies, student projects, as well as qualitative and quantitative evaluations on student learning.

Speakers

Rebecca Boger

Sunday November 8, 2015 9:45am - 10:15am EST
Green Mountain B

GIS Educators Day, ORAL PRESENTATION

9:45am EST

Wetland Management and GIS

Paul Crofts, Essex Technical High School

How do you fast track GIS skills in teenagers? Over the last school year students have been
implementing a wetland management plan. In order to set, measure, and analyze measurable goals, students devised strategies through GIS. This legacy project will be inherited by future senior students in our natural resource management class and also brings together junior grades as they collect data in our on-going mission. After basic skills students rapidly learn to manipulate Arcmap in novel and interesting ways.

Speakers

Paul Crofts

Sunday November 8, 2015 9:45am - 10:15am EST
Green Mountain A

GIS Educators Day, ORAL PRESENTATION

9:45am EST

Create a StoryMap with ArcGIS Online! Hands-on Workshop

Margaret Chernosky, Maine Geographic Alliance

Create a StoryMap with ArcGIS Online! You will learn how to construct a place-based, inquiry project using your local data. This is a hands-on workshop that offers practice and inspiration using ArcGIS Online to create Story Maps. Attendees will learn how to create a public account, create, save and share a Story Map. We will provide a step-by-step guide for practice at home. The project satisfies the Common Core and National Geographic Geography for Life 2 standards. Please bring your laptop or tablet.

Speakers

Margaret Chernosky

Sunday November 8, 2015 9:45am - 10:45am EST
Montpelier

GIS Educators Day, HANDS-ON SESSION: BYOD

9:45am EST

Mobile Data Collection: Temperature and Land Cover

Ina Ahern, Plymouth Regional High School/NHEdGIS

How does surface temperature vary with land cover? How does surface temperature compare with air temperature? Sub-surface temperatures? What’s the impact of shading on surface temperature? In this workshop you will learn how to use the ArcGIS Collector app on offline mobile devices to collect temperature data with digital and infrared thermometers, sync your data to an online map and perform basic symbolization. To further explore this collected data, attend the companion workshop "More than a Map: Data Analysis."

Speakers

Ina Ahern

Sunday November 8, 2015 9:45am - 10:45am EST
Green Mountain C

GIS Educators Day, HANDS-ON SESSION: PC LAB

10:15am EST

Improving Student Performance Within the Geospatial Technology Competency Model

John Van Hoesen, Green Mountain College

One measure of assessing student development through any geospatial program is the Geospatial Technology Competency Model (GTCM). However many 4-year colleges aren’t able to support a standalone GIS certificate or program and so often the goal is to ensure coverage of foundational skills described in The GIS 20: Essential Skills by Gina Clemmer. These skills are embedded in the IndustryWide Technical Competencies building block (Tier 4) of the GTCM but how else can students pursuing degrees at institutions with few GIS-related courses? Project Based Learning (PBL) is often used as the platform to engage students beyond the classroom and offers students the opportunity to interact with community partners and peers in an authentic professional environment. The typical PBL model involves identifying a community partner with a specific need or question and incorporating that into an individual course. According to Herrington and Oliver (2000), these singular projects may not be the most effective way to design authentic learning experiences. Another approach is to sequential link a non-geospatial with a geospatial course across the academic year so that students develop a competence in one subject matter domain or topic and then refine their geospatial skills through the lens of that expertise.

Speakers

John Van Hoesen

Sunday November 8, 2015 10:15am - 10:45am EST
Green Mountain B

GIS Educators Day, ORAL PRESENTATION

10:15am EST

Mapping Coastal Resilience in Communities

Ann Witzig, Essex Technical High School

Students in the Environmental Technology major at Essex Technical High School measured and mapped the impacts of sea level rise and hurricane storm surges on four towns on the Massachusetts North Shore. The final analysis was presented at a community interest group, Storm Surge, in Newburyport. The ESRI project creating storm surge elevations in coastal Mississippi from Hurricane Katrina assisted the development of bathtub models for sea level rise in Massachusetts. These data presented the communities a measure of their resilience to changing coastal processes over the next century.

Speakers

Ann Witzig

Sunday November 8, 2015 10:15am - 10:45am EST
Green Mountain A

GIS Educators Day, ORAL PRESENTATION

11:00am EST

Story Maps in the Liberal Arts University Classroom

Kim Diver and Jason Simms, Wesleyan University

This presentation discusses a pilot project in which five professors integrated ESRI Story Maps within the curriculum during spring semester 2015 at Wesleyan University, a highly-selective liberal arts university. Multiple disciplines were represented that traditionally have not embraced GIS to a large extent in the classroom, including History, Humanities, and World Languages. Feedback from the professors was generally positive, pointing out ways in which spatial visualization provides new pedagogical opportunities and avenues for collaboration both within and outside of class. Student reactions were mixed, however, with many enthusiastically embracing Story Maps, while others noted that more “traditional” delivery methods, such as PowerPoint and Word, might have been more effective in some cases. We will highlight some of the projects and discuss the outcomes, as well as future plans to leverage Story Maps further in the higher ed classroom.

Speakers

Kim Diver

Jason Simms

Sunday November 8, 2015 11:00am - 11:30am EST
Green Mountain B

GIS Educators Day, ORAL PRESENTATION

11:00am EST

Mapping Field Sketches - ArcGIS Online Maps

Bob Woolner and students; Hopkinton Middle High School

Sketching, GPS-ing, observing and mapping come together in a middle-school student-led workshop, an opportunity to learn from the best. 7th grade students from Hopkinton Middle High School in Contoocook, NH spend 3 days (and 2 nights) hiking, exploring, sketching and learning at the Cardigan State Park, in Alexandria, NH. These students will share how they s-l-o-w down, and notice details that would ordinarily be skipped over, how they gather location data to supplement their journal entries, and ultimately how they map and present their observations. Students will provide mini-sketchbooks to you, help you sketch details, write observations and gather latitude and longitude data. Sketches will be scanned, geo-referenced, and mapped, using ArcGIS online mapping software (free to k-12 educators). YOU will learn from the best- the students themselves.

Speakers

Bob Woolner

Sunday November 8, 2015 11:00am - 12:00pm EST
Montpelier

GIS Educators Day, HANDS-ON SESSION: BYOD

11:00am EST

PANEL: Arc-GIS Online Practicalities of Professional Development for Educators

Organizer: Cathleen McAnneny, University of Maine Farmington

This panel will discuss the various approaches to professional development in ESRI's Arc GIS online taken throughout New England. Five states are represented and each presenter will provide an overview of the approach taken to address the professional development needs in their respective states. Successes and challenges will be addressed.

Speakers

Cathleen McAnneny

Sunday November 8, 2015 11:00am - 12:00pm EST
Green Mountain A

GIS Educators Day, PANEL PRESENTATION

11:00am EST

Using ArcGIS Desktop to Create an Editable Feature Service for Field Data Collection with Mobile Devices

Kathryn Keranen, James Madison University

Editable feature services are the key to collaborative data collection and mapping by students. Using an editable feature service multiple collectors can add data to a map simultaneously. In this workshop participants will use ArcGIS desktop to design, construct and publish an editable feature service. Participants will learn how to build a file geodatabase, a feature dataset, and a feature class with established domains.

Speakers

Kathryn Keranen

Sunday November 8, 2015 11:00am - 12:00pm EST
Green Mountain C

GIS Educators Day, HANDS-ON SESSION: PC LAB

11:30am EST

Synopsis of Abstract Machine Humanities GIS

Jenni Lund, Wheaton College

Abstract Machine Humanities GIS is a new book by literary scholar Charles B. Travis (Esri Press 2015). Travis describes several ways he uses GIS to turbocharge traditional literary analyses. This is quite a different thing from using traditional GIS methods to study humanist topics. In one case study, he creates an attribute table with locations in Dublin and the roles that those locations play in the meaning and metaphor of a novel. In another, he geographically correlates maps from different fictional works to demonstrate how a modern author incorporates the symbolism of a medieval author. It is a slim volume, generously illustrated, written for his fellow humanists. If you are interested in the topic but unfamiliar with humanist terms such as phenomenology, ergodicity and deformance, this synopsis might save you some Googling.

Speakers

Jenni Lund

Sunday November 8, 2015 11:30am - 12:00pm EST
Green Mountain B

GIS Educators Day, ORAL PRESENTATION

12:00pm EST

GIS Educators Day Lunch

Sunday November 8, 2015 12:00pm - 12:45pm EST
Mezzanine

GIS Educators Day

12:45pm EST

Keynote Address: The Drones are Coming, and They Want to Provide Imagery for Your GIS

Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne, Director, UVM Spatial Analysis Laboratory

Speakers

Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne

Director, University of Vermont's Spatial Analysis Lab

Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne is the Director of the University of Vermont's Spatial Analysis Lab. He holds a joint scientist position with the US Forest Service.Find Jarlath's presentation on the Recorded Presentations page... Read More →

Sunday November 8, 2015 12:45pm - 1:30pm EST
Green Mountain Ballroom

GIS Educators Day

1:35pm EST

Lightning Previews of Afternoon Sessions

Sunday November 8, 2015 1:35pm - 2:00pm EST
Green Mountain Ballroom

GIS Educators Day

2:15pm EST

Class Group Project: Performing a Market Analysis with ArcGIS Online

Andrew DiGiovanni and Jason Tetu, Lebanon High School

Engage your students with a great application of ArcGIS Online. Challenge groups to act as business relocation firms! After covering topics such as industrial practices, consumerism, the layouts of cities, and socioeconomic trends, the students in AP Geography at Lebanon High School used ArcGIS Online along with research tools to determine what would be the ideal new location for their teacher's fictional whitewater kayak production company. Each team started with key information such as the size requirements of the company facility, including production, office, and retail space. They were also allowed to submit questions about other operational, labor, and production costs to obtain the best location. Teams evaluated site, situation, and market factors to weigh potential locations for the new facility. Then, each made a presentation about the location they picked to a review board. Embedded maps had to show evidence to support the team’s decision. Students chose the appropriate Esri layers to study - drawing upon their experience with finding relationships between various economic and cultural variables for a given region, on a variety of scales, prior to the project. Data within the GIS layers was combined with other information to find population centers that suited the business owner's requirements. Students shared their research on the expected effects of their chosen locations on adjusted costs and growth potential compared to the company's current headquarters, and the new market’s proximity to whitewater access. Come see some of the highlights. Account preparation with ArcGIS Online in advance through ConnectED is recommended (see http://www.esri.com/connected). You'll want to come up with your own version of this exciting project!

Speakers

Andrew DiGiovanni

Education Technology Integrator, Lebanon High School

Science, music, skiing and sailing.

Jason Tetu

Sunday November 8, 2015 2:15pm - 2:45pm EST
Green Mountain B

GIS Educators Day, ORAL PRESENTATION

2:15pm EST

Mapping LiDAR Data with ArcGIS Desktop

Kathryn Keranen, James Madison University

Lidar (light detection and ranging) is a remote-sensing technique that uses laser light to densely sample the surface of the Earth and generate precise, three-dimensional information about its shape and surface characteristics. LiDAR is used to produce more accurate shoreline maps, make digital elevation models for use in a GIS, assist in emergency response operations, and in many other applications. In this session participants will explore sites for LiDAR download, experience the ease of creating a LiDAR LAS dataset, and use the ArcMap LAS toolbar for visualization and analysis.

Speakers

Kathryn Keranen

Sunday November 8, 2015 2:15pm - 3:15pm EST
Green Mountain C

GIS Educators Day, HANDS-ON SESSION: PC LAB

2:15pm EST

More than a map: Data analysis in ArcGIS Online

Rebecca Lilja, US Forest Service

Bring your own laptop! Learn how to convert data into information using several spatial analysis tools
available in ArcGIS Online for Organizations. Taking data collected in the previous workshop, “Mobile Data Collection: Temperature and Land cover,” participants will learn interpolate or predict values and overlay data to answer questions. A demonstration of map journals will be given to display the results of the analysis.

Speakers

Rebecca Lilja

Sunday November 8, 2015 2:15pm - 3:15pm EST
Montpelier

GIS Educators Day, HANDS-ON SESSION: BYOD

2:15pm EST

PANEL: Developing Student and Institutional Geospatial Literacy in Higher Education

Organizer: Keith Ratner, Salem State University

GIS and the geospatial technologies have a tremendous ability to help understand geographic patterns and processes across the Earth. They also can help make better decisions when managing an institutional facility such as a college or university. Regardless of whether for teaching purposes or facility management, many institutions of higher education are lacking when it comes to GIS and geospatial literacy. This panel addresses both of these issues. First, panelist will present both positive and negative experiences of teaching in higher education using geospatial technologies, as well as, teaching the geospatial technologies themselves. Panelist will also present examples of simple online geospatial tools that can utilized in the classroom. Second, panelists will discuss getting academic institutions more aware of the geospatial technologies in general, whether in regards to increasing its involvement in classes, or to helping to manage the facilities and other aspects of the establishment. The Panel will run with each panelist giving a short presentation before the session is opened up for discussion and suggestions.

Speakers

Keith Ratner

Sunday November 8, 2015 2:15pm - 3:15pm EST
Green Mountain A

GIS Educators Day, PANEL PRESENTATION

2:45pm EST

Story Maps, Local History and Middle Schoolers

Bill Guerette, Presque Isle Middle School

Are you interested in local history, maps and story telling? Story maps combined with interactive maps and multimedia content can create awesome presentations about local history. This presentation will be about one such project. The project is a collaboration between the Presque Isle Airport Museum and Presque Isle Middle School eighth graders. It tells the rich history of the area where the middle school is located. The Story Map explains how it evolved from a grass runway in the 1930's , to an Army Base during WWII, to a launching site for SNARK missiles with nuclear warheads in the late 1950's and finally to the present day uses of the former base.

Speakers

Bill Guerette

Sunday November 8, 2015 2:45pm - 3:15pm EST
Green Mountain B

GIS Educators Day, ORAL PRESENTATION

3:30pm EST

Creating a High School Environmental Studies Course Utilizing ArcGIS Online and ConnectED

Lauren Amaturo, Two Rivers Magnet High School

Participants in this presentation will learn about how an environmental science magnet school in Hartford, CT designed and successfully implemented an environmental studies course focusing on Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The presenters will provide tips and suggestions on how to successfully incorporate Esri's ArcGIS Online program into the secondary school (6-12) classroom. Participants will also gain access to sample lessons and resources that can be used when writing a course in GIS for their local middle or high school.

Speakers

Lauren Amaturo

Two Rivers Magnet High School

Sunday November 8, 2015 3:30pm - 4:00pm EST
Green Mountain A

GIS Educators Day, ORAL PRESENTATION

3:30pm EST

Re-Mapping King Philip’s War: Native Geographies in Early Colonial New England

Andy Anderson and Lisa Brooks, Amherst College

This spring Amherst College offered an experimental tutorial to introduce students to research methods in American Studies and Indigenous Studies, focusing on King Philip’s War in early colonial New England. The students read extensive background material, visited archives, and researched primary sources. A large part of the class was learning to apply GIS to help them discover the importance of spatial relationships in the origin, events, and conclusion of the War. This presentation will summarize the lessons they learned and highlight some of their results. It will also feature maps that center regional Native geographies, which may be especially useful for researchers and educators.

Speakers

Andy Anderson

Senior Academic Technology Specialist for Data Science and Spatial Analysis, Amherst College

Education, history, environment, community engagement

Lisa Brooks

Amherst College

Sunday November 8, 2015 3:30pm - 4:00pm EST
Green Mountain B

GIS Educators Day, ORAL PRESENTATION

3:30pm EST

Analyzing populations exposed to nuclear power plants using ArcGIS Online

Dara Mendeloff, Columbia University

The location and status of energy infrastructure, especially in relationship to population and land use,
are important from many perspectives including access to energy, development, environmental impacts on land, air, and water resources, disaster risk management, and mitigation and adaptation to climate change. In this workshop, participants will use ArcGIS Online's current analysis, visualization and presentation tools to explore populations exposed to the world's nuclear power plants.

Speakers

Dara Mendeloff

Sunday November 8, 2015 3:30pm - 4:30pm EST
Montpelier

GIS Educators Day, HANDS-ON SESSION: BYOD

3:30pm EST

Census Data for the GIS User: Some tips and tricks for downloading data and shapefiles together

David Kraiker, US Census Bureau

This workshop explains Census Bureau concepts, including data years and geography types, and works
with the class attendees to mine for data within the Census American Factfinder (AFF) portal. It also explains some unorthodox ways of creating and downloading shapefiles directly from AFF. This session is both appropriate for educators and industry GISers. Attendees should bring their laptop.

Speakers

David Kraiker

Data Dissemination Specialist, US Census Bureau, Data Dissemination Specialist, US Census Bureau

David Kraiker has worked at the Census Bureau out of the New York City office for the past 26 years. For the past 9 years he has worked in Data Dissemination, teaching and instructing clients in how to download and use Census data. Previously he worked as a Geographer for the Census... Read More →

Sunday November 8, 2015 3:30pm - 4:30pm EST
Green Mountain C

GIS Educators Day, HANDS-ON SESSION: PC LAB

4:00pm EST

Integrating Open Street Map with ArcGIS Online in the Classroom

Noah Ahles and Steve Bower

OpenStreetMap (OSM), often referred to as the ‘Wikipedia of maps’, is an open source map of the world that anyone can contribute to or download from. The OSM platform makes it easy for educators to incorporate spatially oriented projects into the classroom, expose students to new technologies and help them build valuable skills. Projects can range from digitizing the essential infrastructure of one’s hometown to participating in creating a basemap of Nepal’s buildings and road networks to guide humanitarian relief workers in the aftermath of the recent earthquake. This presentation will cover potential projects that can be incorporated into the curriculum and case studies of how OSM has already been used in a classroom setting. Get ready to learn how to use OSM.

Speakers

Noah Ahles

Steve Bower

Sunday November 8, 2015 4:00pm - 4:30pm EST
Green Mountain B

GIS Educators Day, ORAL PRESENTATION

4:00pm EST

The Role of GIS and Social Media in Post-Hurricane Sandy Emergency Response

Katie Marsden, Syracuse University

Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs), particularly social media and geographic
information systems (GIS), have become a transformational force in emergency response. Social media enables ad hoc collaboration, providing timely, useful information dissemination and sharing, and helping to overcome limitations of time and place. Geographic information systems increase the level of situation awareness, serving geospatial data using interactive maps, animations, and computer generated imagery derived from sophisticated global remote sensing systems. Digital workspaces bring these technologies together and contribute to meeting ad hoc and formal emergency response challenges through their affordances of situation awareness and mass collaboration. Distributed ICTs that enable ad hoc emergency response via digital workspaces have arguably made traditional top-down system deployments less relevant in certain situations, including emergency response (Merrill, 2009; Heylighen, 2007a,b). Heylighen (2014, 2007a,b) theorizes that human cognitive stigmergy explains some self-organizing characteristics of ad hoc systems. Elliott (2007) identifies cognitive stigmergy as a factor in mass collaborations supported by digital workspaces. Stigmergy, a term from biology, refers to the phenomenon of self-organizing systems with agents that coordinate via perceived changes in the environment rather than direct communication. The basic assertion is that ICTs and stigmergy together make possible highly effective ad hoc collaborations in circumstances where more typical collaborative methods break down. The research compares the ICTs used for emergency response during Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, and presents a process model developed from the case studies and relevant academic literature.

Speakers

Katie Marsden

Sunday November 8, 2015 4:00pm - 4:30pm EST
Green Mountain A

GIS Educators Day, ORAL PRESENTATION

4:30pm EST

GIS Educators Day Wrap-up & Prizes, Distribution of Esri Books and More!

Sunday November 8, 2015 4:30pm - 5:00pm EST
Green Mountain Ballroom

GIS Educators Day