December 9, 2014
J307 with Carolyn Nielsen
GIS and the Association of Washington Geographers Spring Poster Contest Story #5
By David Anderson
Western Washington University will host the next annual Association of Washington Geographers (AWG) poster competition this spring in Arntzen Hall. The event will take place on Sat. May 16, 2015.
According to Dr. Aquila Flower, assistant professor in Westerns Department of Environmental Studies and geographic information systems (GIS) expert, Western was awarded the honor of hosting the event at last year’s AWG spring meeting. The department is excited to be hosting the event she said.
The contest is open to all students from Washington colleges in any department not just students studying Geography or GIS, Flower said.
Geographic information systems (GIS) have become synonymous with cartography; however, in addition to making maps, GIS is used to display all types of spatial and statistical analysis, therefore the AWG event is open to any discipline not just geography, Flower said.
According to the National Geographic Society a “geographic information system is a computer system for capturing, storing, checking, and displaying data related to positions on Earth’s surface. GIS can show many different kinds of data on one map. This enables people to more easily see, analyze, and understand patterns and relationships.”
Stefan Freelan teaches cartography and a GIS introductory class at Western. He feels that the importance of GIS in how we understand and analyze our world cannot be understated.
“GIS is the language of spatial data today,” Freelan said. “Whether you’re talking about trees, or flowers, cars, or people; anything outside of a lab you are talking about spatial data. In order to fully analyze it, and to better understand the data, it must funnel through a geographic information system.”
Flower teaches the GIS course series at Western and has used GIS extensively, particularly in her doctorate work while attending the University of Oregon.
She used GIS to gain further understanding of how rising forest bug infestation could be caused by global warming. GIS gave her an effective way to analyze temperature changes over time from data she gathered through her study of dendrochronology; tree rings.
The AWG poster event is an excellent forum for students to display their work in front of scholars, GIS experts and geographers Flower said.
“And, it looks very good on a resume. It can be an excellent dress rehearsal for Western’s Scholars week.”
Scholars Week is an annual event held at Western in Carver Gym. Students must submit an abstract of their area of study and a copy of the poster that they will display. It is held during the spring quarter after the AWG poster contest.
Last year, the AWG event was held at the University of Washington’s Tacoma Campus. Western had five students compete Flower said.
Christopher Zemp attended the event last year and won. He was in Flowers’s GIS series working toward his minor. Zemp is currently the Editor in Chief of Western’s “Planet” magazine and is majoring in environmental studies.
His award winning poster, entitled, “Assessing the Impacts of Climate Change: Future Forecasts for Six Puget Sound Watersheds” predicted the effects global warming may have on snow pack in the mountains of Washington.
The data he studied came from stream gauges that are setup and monitored by the United States Geographic Survey and are used to establish the National Hydrographic Dataset which keeps track of the nation’s water inventory.
Zemp took existing data, aggregated it, and put it into an Excel spreadsheet. He then displayed it visually using ArcMap.
“The data was not being communicated; before my project no one knew it existed,” Zemp said.
For first place Zemp received $50 in cash.
Dr. Patrick Buckley, Associate Professor in Western’s Department of Environmental Studies also attended the 2014 AWG event. He along with Flower gave faculty presentations. He will be assisting Flowers in organizing the May event.
“It’s a showcase for students,” Buckley said. “We’re excited to be hosting.”
Freelan believes that although today’s students don’t need to necessarily fully immerse themselves in GIS it would be wise of them to gain an elementary understanding of it. Although you may not work with GIS directly, chances are you will need to communicate with a GIS expert. Understanding what is possible, and what is not possible, with GIS could help you in your chosen career.
“GIS is an important skill set in today’s job market,” says Teddy Alhvin Western archeology and GIS student.
Alhvin plans to enter his GIS project into the AWG poster contest. For his project he will be doing research for Jessica Rock of the Washington Health Care Alliance (WAHA).
By combining data from the US Census Bureau, the WAHA viability data set and enrollment statistical data, Alhvin will help the agency to determine the most effective areas within Whatcom and Skagit County to concentrate their efforts toward improving enrollment in their program.
Ahlvin says he looks forward to displaying the results of his research at the upcoming event.
“It used to be, what question is your computer capable of answering,” Alhvin said. “Today, with GIS, it’s how clever of a question can you ask your computer.”
Multimedia Plan
1. My first multimedia bit: Many students at Western as a part of their advanced studies, including GIS and Geography students, create websites to showcase their projects as an online portfolio. I would create a blog page that contained links to each of their sites. Each link would feature a small student into and an overview of the student’s research project, what they plan to display at the AWG meeting and the status of their work. I would link all of this to a #tagged twitter feed something like #AWG2015WWUPosters, from this twitter feed I would tweet before, during and after the event. I would create a static contact page as a part of the blog site that would have contact information for the organizers of the AWG event, how and where to sign up as a participant, and the times and dates. I would also include a link for general correspondence. I would create a FAQ static page. This page would contain links to ArcGIS and AWG that would describe GIS and AWG. Brief histories etc. This entire page could be used again for whoever may host the AWG event next year, or it could be put on hold for the next time Western host’s the event as they did back in 2012. I would post a link to this on “Western Today” page so that students, from any discipline, that may be interested in the AWG event could post their work or just attend.
2. For my second multimedia bit I would conduct a video interview with Chris Zemp the 2014 AWG poster contest winner from Western. I would also interview Dr. Aquila Flower and Dr. Patrick Buckley the Western faculty members that are organizing the event and Teddy Alhvin current Western GIS student under Flowers that plans to enter the upcoming event. I would also do a “Man about Town” bit for the video where I would go out on the street and ask people if they knew what GIS was; I would mix these questions in with the rest of the video piece. I would post this video online, linking it to my blog page about the event. I would produce the video as a fast-paced piece, interspersing the interview elements with the chronological history and progression of GIS geo-statistical analysis and with how the use of GIS is becoming progressively more pervasive as people continue to discover its efficacy in so many different areas of social, economic and scientific research. The video would wrap up with an announcement of the upcoming AWG event and provide informative links for the viewer.
3. My third multimedia bit would be to build a “Timeline JS” that would show how a GIS project evolves from conception through to completion. In the world of GIS these are called “workflow models.” It could be based on one of the Western student’s project that would be displayed at the AWG event. The time line would contain links to the student’s intermediate data files complete with jpeg screen captures of their different iterations throughout the process of their research. It would also contain links to ARCGIS help-files that are readily available online that would help to define and demystify GIS to the uninitiated observer and anyone that may be interested in what GIS is and what AWG poster contest attempts to showcase. I would make it illustrative and as easy to understand as possible; try to build humor into it. As a “Timeline JS” it would have the capability to be dynamic so that it could be updated while it remains online and active.
4. The forth multimedia bit would be a themed countdown calendar that would count off the days leading up to the event. I would set it up with a series of linked calendars so that it was weekly, then as it got closer to the event a new calendar would kick in that would be daily, then hourly etc. I would also link this calendar in “google labs” with a “google alert” that would search constantly for GIS and Geography content, these topics would pop-up onto a window in the calendar as teasers about GIS. In this way I could raise awareness and excitement about GIS, Geography and the event.
Sources:
● Dr. Aquila Flower, Assistant Professor Huxley College of the Environment at Western Washington University 360-650-6487
● Dr. Patrick H. Buckley, Associate Professor Department of Environmental Studies at Western Washington University 360-650-4773
● Stefan Freelan Department of Environmental Studies, Huxley College of the Environment 360-650-2949
● Christopher Zemp, Student at Western majoring in Environmental Studies with a Minor GIS and winner of the 2014 AWG Convention 425 446 0787
● Teddy Alhvin, Student at Western majoring in Archeology with a Minor GIS 541-602-3083
· Association of Washington Geologist’s (AWG) on Facebook
● National Geographic Education Website:
o http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/geographic-information-system-gis/?ar_a=1
· ArcGIS
o http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html - /Essential_ModelBuilder_vocabulary/002w00000026000000/
· Timeline JS
o http://timeline.knightlab.com/
J307 with Carolyn Nielsen
GIS and the Association of Washington Geographers Spring Poster Contest Story #5
By David Anderson
Western Washington University will host the next annual Association of Washington Geographers (AWG) poster competition this spring in Arntzen Hall. The event will take place on Sat. May 16, 2015.
According to Dr. Aquila Flower, assistant professor in Westerns Department of Environmental Studies and geographic information systems (GIS) expert, Western was awarded the honor of hosting the event at last year’s AWG spring meeting. The department is excited to be hosting the event she said.
The contest is open to all students from Washington colleges in any department not just students studying Geography or GIS, Flower said.
Geographic information systems (GIS) have become synonymous with cartography; however, in addition to making maps, GIS is used to display all types of spatial and statistical analysis, therefore the AWG event is open to any discipline not just geography, Flower said.
According to the National Geographic Society a “geographic information system is a computer system for capturing, storing, checking, and displaying data related to positions on Earth’s surface. GIS can show many different kinds of data on one map. This enables people to more easily see, analyze, and understand patterns and relationships.”
Stefan Freelan teaches cartography and a GIS introductory class at Western. He feels that the importance of GIS in how we understand and analyze our world cannot be understated.
“GIS is the language of spatial data today,” Freelan said. “Whether you’re talking about trees, or flowers, cars, or people; anything outside of a lab you are talking about spatial data. In order to fully analyze it, and to better understand the data, it must funnel through a geographic information system.”
Flower teaches the GIS course series at Western and has used GIS extensively, particularly in her doctorate work while attending the University of Oregon.
She used GIS to gain further understanding of how rising forest bug infestation could be caused by global warming. GIS gave her an effective way to analyze temperature changes over time from data she gathered through her study of dendrochronology; tree rings.
The AWG poster event is an excellent forum for students to display their work in front of scholars, GIS experts and geographers Flower said.
“And, it looks very good on a resume. It can be an excellent dress rehearsal for Western’s Scholars week.”
Scholars Week is an annual event held at Western in Carver Gym. Students must submit an abstract of their area of study and a copy of the poster that they will display. It is held during the spring quarter after the AWG poster contest.
Last year, the AWG event was held at the University of Washington’s Tacoma Campus. Western had five students compete Flower said.
Christopher Zemp attended the event last year and won. He was in Flowers’s GIS series working toward his minor. Zemp is currently the Editor in Chief of Western’s “Planet” magazine and is majoring in environmental studies.
His award winning poster, entitled, “Assessing the Impacts of Climate Change: Future Forecasts for Six Puget Sound Watersheds” predicted the effects global warming may have on snow pack in the mountains of Washington.
The data he studied came from stream gauges that are setup and monitored by the United States Geographic Survey and are used to establish the National Hydrographic Dataset which keeps track of the nation’s water inventory.
Zemp took existing data, aggregated it, and put it into an Excel spreadsheet. He then displayed it visually using ArcMap.
“The data was not being communicated; before my project no one knew it existed,” Zemp said.
For first place Zemp received $50 in cash.
Dr. Patrick Buckley, Associate Professor in Western’s Department of Environmental Studies also attended the 2014 AWG event. He along with Flower gave faculty presentations. He will be assisting Flowers in organizing the May event.
“It’s a showcase for students,” Buckley said. “We’re excited to be hosting.”
Freelan believes that although today’s students don’t need to necessarily fully immerse themselves in GIS it would be wise of them to gain an elementary understanding of it. Although you may not work with GIS directly, chances are you will need to communicate with a GIS expert. Understanding what is possible, and what is not possible, with GIS could help you in your chosen career.
“GIS is an important skill set in today’s job market,” says Teddy Alhvin Western archeology and GIS student.
Alhvin plans to enter his GIS project into the AWG poster contest. For his project he will be doing research for Jessica Rock of the Washington Health Care Alliance (WAHA).
By combining data from the US Census Bureau, the WAHA viability data set and enrollment statistical data, Alhvin will help the agency to determine the most effective areas within Whatcom and Skagit County to concentrate their efforts toward improving enrollment in their program.
Ahlvin says he looks forward to displaying the results of his research at the upcoming event.
“It used to be, what question is your computer capable of answering,” Alhvin said. “Today, with GIS, it’s how clever of a question can you ask your computer.”
Multimedia Plan
1. My first multimedia bit: Many students at Western as a part of their advanced studies, including GIS and Geography students, create websites to showcase their projects as an online portfolio. I would create a blog page that contained links to each of their sites. Each link would feature a small student into and an overview of the student’s research project, what they plan to display at the AWG meeting and the status of their work. I would link all of this to a #tagged twitter feed something like #AWG2015WWUPosters, from this twitter feed I would tweet before, during and after the event. I would create a static contact page as a part of the blog site that would have contact information for the organizers of the AWG event, how and where to sign up as a participant, and the times and dates. I would also include a link for general correspondence. I would create a FAQ static page. This page would contain links to ArcGIS and AWG that would describe GIS and AWG. Brief histories etc. This entire page could be used again for whoever may host the AWG event next year, or it could be put on hold for the next time Western host’s the event as they did back in 2012. I would post a link to this on “Western Today” page so that students, from any discipline, that may be interested in the AWG event could post their work or just attend.
2. For my second multimedia bit I would conduct a video interview with Chris Zemp the 2014 AWG poster contest winner from Western. I would also interview Dr. Aquila Flower and Dr. Patrick Buckley the Western faculty members that are organizing the event and Teddy Alhvin current Western GIS student under Flowers that plans to enter the upcoming event. I would also do a “Man about Town” bit for the video where I would go out on the street and ask people if they knew what GIS was; I would mix these questions in with the rest of the video piece. I would post this video online, linking it to my blog page about the event. I would produce the video as a fast-paced piece, interspersing the interview elements with the chronological history and progression of GIS geo-statistical analysis and with how the use of GIS is becoming progressively more pervasive as people continue to discover its efficacy in so many different areas of social, economic and scientific research. The video would wrap up with an announcement of the upcoming AWG event and provide informative links for the viewer.
3. My third multimedia bit would be to build a “Timeline JS” that would show how a GIS project evolves from conception through to completion. In the world of GIS these are called “workflow models.” It could be based on one of the Western student’s project that would be displayed at the AWG event. The time line would contain links to the student’s intermediate data files complete with jpeg screen captures of their different iterations throughout the process of their research. It would also contain links to ARCGIS help-files that are readily available online that would help to define and demystify GIS to the uninitiated observer and anyone that may be interested in what GIS is and what AWG poster contest attempts to showcase. I would make it illustrative and as easy to understand as possible; try to build humor into it. As a “Timeline JS” it would have the capability to be dynamic so that it could be updated while it remains online and active.
4. The forth multimedia bit would be a themed countdown calendar that would count off the days leading up to the event. I would set it up with a series of linked calendars so that it was weekly, then as it got closer to the event a new calendar would kick in that would be daily, then hourly etc. I would also link this calendar in “google labs” with a “google alert” that would search constantly for GIS and Geography content, these topics would pop-up onto a window in the calendar as teasers about GIS. In this way I could raise awareness and excitement about GIS, Geography and the event.
Sources:
● Dr. Aquila Flower, Assistant Professor Huxley College of the Environment at Western Washington University 360-650-6487
● Dr. Patrick H. Buckley, Associate Professor Department of Environmental Studies at Western Washington University 360-650-4773
● Stefan Freelan Department of Environmental Studies, Huxley College of the Environment 360-650-2949
● Christopher Zemp, Student at Western majoring in Environmental Studies with a Minor GIS and winner of the 2014 AWG Convention 425 446 0787
● Teddy Alhvin, Student at Western majoring in Archeology with a Minor GIS 541-602-3083
- Wordpress.org
· Association of Washington Geologist’s (AWG) on Facebook
● National Geographic Education Website:
o http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/geographic-information-system-gis/?ar_a=1
· ArcGIS
o http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html - /Essential_ModelBuilder_vocabulary/002w00000026000000/
· Timeline JS
o http://timeline.knightlab.com/
- Count down timer creation site: