Greetings Alison & All:
Professor Alison, thanks for noting the Our Town lesson and map with layers in ArcGIS Online. This is part of our GeoInquiries collection, a set of over 150 one-page lessons tied to web maps designed to help teachers of history, geography,
math, biology, earth science, and others teach effectively with web GIS tools and methods. The collection can be found here:
https://www.esri.com/en-us/industries/education/schools/geoinquiries-collections Most of these lessons require no sign in to ArcGIS Online; they can be used with any standard web connection and browser, and are tied to national standards in social studies
and science. I know that many of you are geomentors and these are great ways of introducing educators to GIS. And as Alison points out, they are good resources for those outside of education, as well!
One note on the Our Town lesson: I noticed that when you pull up the map associated with the lesson at the moment, the imagery is quite cloudy in that location. The easiest way to get around that is to select “modify map” in the upper
right, then > Add Data > add from ArcGIS Online > search for “clarity” > add the world clarity image layer. This is the layer that is optimized for no clouds.
And on a related note, if you love examining historical topographic maps and comparing them to present-day resources, be sure to visit the Esri USGS historical map explorer:
https://livingatlas.arcgis.com/topoexplorer/index.html Warning though – it is map-addictive and you might not be able to get your regular work done for awhile! : - )
Cheers,
Joseph Kerski
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2019 21:55:20 +0000
From: Alison Pechenick <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Our Town coordinates
Greetings all,
I've just finished viewing Thornton Wilder's wonderful classic 1940 movie version of his play "Our Town", and knowing the mountain village setting to be modeled after Peterborough, NH, was disoriented by the coordinates put forward as
the play opens:
The name of our town is Grover's Corners, N.H., just over the line from Massachusetts; latitude 42 degrees, 40 minutes, longitude 70 degrees, 37 minutes.
Poking around a bit, I discovered this creative classroom exercise, and thought to share:
Best wishes to all for a fine 2020,
Alison Pechenick
UVM Faculty, retired
P.S. William Holden fans: For a wild contrast, watch Our Town and Stalag 17 in close proximity.
Joseph J. Kerski, Ph.D., GISP | Education Manager
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