GeoTech 2008 Saturday Conference Schedule

GeoTech 2008 Saturday Draft Schedule
**This schedule is a live document and will change as new presenters come on board!

Brad Baker: Bishop Dunne Catholic School, Dallas, Texas

Safeguarding Our Community, Students Using GIS to Make a Difference - At Bishop Dunne Catholic School students put their skills and the school's GIS/GPS resources to good use to help make Dallas, Texas a safer place to live. From monthly crime hotspot reports, to school homeland security projects, these students have built a strong working partnership with local law enforcement. The school's missing person search mapping team also works tirelessly to aid both the police and families who have lost loved ones. At Bishop Dunne, students experience firsthand how a map can make a real difference in the lives of the people who live in their community. This presentation will describe in detail the community projects and partnerships mentioned above, and discuss some the successes and challenges of the program.

Aleta Belcher: Professor, Texas A & M International, Laredo, Texas

History of Laredo and the Lower Rio Grand Border – In this session, you will learn about one of the fastest growing cities in the nation, Laredo, Texas. This border metropolis has greatly benefited from the well-planned, historic "Streets of Laredo," and its urban core continues to be reinvigorated as commercial areas and neighborhoods make the "Gateway City" their home. Come to this lively look at the history of one of the colorful border towns of the great state of Texas.

Eric Bowman: ESRI, San Antonio, Texas

Exploring Earth Systems through GIS - Need a different and interesting way to teach earth systems or environmental science? We will be taking a tour of the various resources using web-based GIS to full GIS software with ArcGIS Desktop to challenge students to think and understand about earth science. No experience using GIS needed for this class.
Explore your World with ArcGIS Explorer - Come learn how to explore your world with ESRI’s new, free downloadable ArcGIS Explorer! Learn how to add GIS data such as shapefiles, imagery, GPS data and even KML files to ArcGIS Explorer. You can also use ArcGIS Explorer to connect directly to a variety of free, ready-to-use globe services hosted by ESRI.

Angelo Cassaburri: NASA Education Outreach, Houston, Texas

Aerospace Education Specialist: International Space Station astronauts and the NASA ISS EarthKAM program provide stunning, high quality photographs of our planet from the unique perspective of Earth orbit. The ISS EarthKAM program gives students the opportunity to remotely operate an electronic still camera that provides photographs of our planet taken from the International Space Station.

Robotics Without Electronics (Robonautics – Humans and Robots) - Learn about the robotics features on NASA’s Space Shuttle and International Space Station. Explore design challenges for making and using robotic components such as robotic arms, hands, and fingers from inexpensive and locally obtainable materials.

Mission Geography - Seeing the World In a Whole New Way - Mission Geography is about using geography and NASA's photographs and images of our planet from the unique perspective of Earth orbit. The three publications, Mission Geography K-4, Mission Geography 5-8, and Mission Geography 9-12, contain curriculum support materials focused on the development of key grade-level-appropriate geography skills including remote sensing and map/image interpretation. •Mission Geography CD-ROM included.

Korey Champe: Pasco Scientific, Roseville, California

Electronic Probeware for the Classroom

Dr. Bob Coulter: Director of the Litzsinger Road Ecology Center for the Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Missouri.

Show Me the Numbers!: A GIS (geographic information system) is a great tool for analyzing regional, national, and even global data. In this session, learn a few simple techniques to boost your students’ data literacy as you pursue your science or social studies curriculum. How can the same data look so different in two maps? By the end of this session, you’ll know how to do these sleights of hand – and be able to engage your students in much deeper inquiry as a result.

Make After-School Spatial: Watch your after-school and summer programs come alive as students engage in community-based projects that promote stewardship and motivate service-learning. Elementary and middle school students from St. Louis participating in the LIONS (Local Investigations of Natural Science) program are doing just this, learning geospatially about issues in their community including migration and seasonal change, urban forestry, and racial segregation.

Michelle Crane, Grand Prairie High School 9th Grade, Grand Prairie, Texas

Border Disorder - Border Issues Span the Globe. Borders that are too open, borders that are too closed, and even borders that no longer exist, all affect cultures and perceptions. Participants will explore different types of borders and the problems they create. Focus will be on U.S. and Mexico, Germany, and Korea.

Sandy Doss, Holbrook Travel; Kelly Pineda, Beth Dies, Amber Jenkins, Erica Barnett, Mario Root

Teacher and Student Travel Panel: Getting the most out of foreign travel

Barbaree Duke: GIS: YES, Consultant, Covington, Louisiana

Literature Latitudes - The Wide World of GeoSpatial Technologies - All you need is a good book and your virtual compass! We'll explore the uncharted territory of geography and spatial technology in the English Language Arts classroom. Using these tools to connect the real world with reading and literature results in critical thinking and analysis. We will explore applications in the K-12 classroom as well as provide classroom-tested lessons to get you started. GIS can take you down steamboat routes and along trails of courage or betrayal to make these stories literally come alive!

Robert Ehrlichman: Dallas, Texas

Printing for Best Color Reproduction and Results

Dr. Ken Hendrickson: Professor of Geography, Midwestern State College, Wichita Falls, Texas

The Surge is Working. So What? – Even though violence seems to have decreased somewhat, the U.S. attack upon and occupation of Iraq is a total disaster. We will discuss the reasons for this dreary assessment.

Randy Kilian-Smith: Technology Coordinator, Northeast ISD, San Antonio, Texas

Google Sky

Jenny McMillen: National Archive and Records Administration, Fort Worth, Texas

Come to this hands-on session to experience the vast network of teacher resources available through the National Archives both nationally and in Fort Worth, Texas. You will get the inside scoop on how best to mine these resources for use in your classroom.

Anita Palmer: GISetc, Dallas, Texas

GIS for Everyone: What we’ve all been waiting for! – Mapping Our World has now expanded to four books that extend from elementary grade 3 through Community College. In this session, you will use a lesson created especially for grades 3 through 5 from book one of the brand new Our World GIS Education series. Learning to Think Spatially uses the free AEJEE GIS interface and has step-by-step lessons that you can take directly into your classroom. No prior GIS experience necessary.

Mary Palmer: Apple Distinguished Educator, VFW’s national outstanding Teacher of the Year.

Creating the Student Documentary - Creating professional movies of community member involvement in historic events can put history into the hands of any student in your class. Experience seven years of examples from Ms. Palmer’s students’ work. Very little classroom time was used to research and represent social issues from their community in the process. See how convincing these students became as historians through their investigation of neighborhood involvement in history. Good for any teacher looking to create video content to support classroom instruction.

Roger Palmer: GISetc, Dallas, Texas

GPS resources for mathematics, GIS teaching Earth Science, Earth Caching

Scott Sires: Ellison Miles GeoTechnology Institute, Brookhaven College, Farmers Branch, Texas

Careers in Geology and Geospatial Technologies

Sky Ranch

Outdoor Education and Kinesthetic Learning

Dr. Cassey Soeffing: Winner of Toyota Classroom Grant, Einstein Fellow of Science and Mathematics, South Dakota Science Teacher of the Year, and Winner of the Milken Educator Award for teaching excellence – Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Use of Remote Sensing in Middle School Science and Geography, grant writing.

Paula Ann Trevino: Assistant Principal, Helix Charter High School, San Diego, California

A GIS Course of Study – Learn about a new pilot GIS program that is in the 3rd year of a 4 year plan. Students move through curricular exposure in the first year to learning the basics of GIS in the second year. The 3rd and 4th years are geared towards community projects. If you have been wondering how to start a GIS program of your own, this is the session for you!

Christine Voigt: Bishop Dunne Catholic School, Dallas, Texas

Podpeople: Student Use of iPod as a learning tool
Hear results and best practice overview from the first two years of the innovative
program to place iPods into the hands of students here at Bishop Dunne.

Dr. Shannon White: Assistant Director Florida Center for Instructional Technology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida.

Creating Podcasts: Resources for your Classroom

Dr. Dawn Wright: Keynote Speaker

Have Coffee with Deepsea Dawn – This is an informal chat time with GeoTech 2008 Keynote Speaker with “Deepsea Dawn” Wright. Topics will range far and wide but might include her time aboard ship, coral reef exploration, and ecology.