Dear Colleagues, I hope summer finds you all well. I'm writing to let you know that the Fourth Annual Conference of GIS Educators in Maine will be held on Friday, November 18th, at the Augusta Civic Center from 9:30am to 4pm. Lunch and snacks will be served. The conference will include... - Tracks for K12 and higher education, including hands-on workshops and compelling talks and discussions - Plenary sessions with exciting speakers - New curriculum materials, software and data resources to use in education - Poster sessions to showcase GIS education programs and student work statewide - Poster & project competition for students from middle school to graduate school Free for Students & K12 Teachers! As in past years, we have a limited amount of funding to allow K12 educators to attend the conference for free and to help cover substitutes. Also, K12 and undergraduate students may attend the conference for free. There will be space to request support for students and K12 teachers on the conference registration form. We don't have sufficient funding to cover travel this year, but we encourage you to seek sponsorship and may be able to help you find businesses and individuals who can help. Continuing education credits will be awarded upon request. Propose a Workshop, Poster or Presentation! We are accepting proposals for workshops and presentations for the conference from educators and students through August 15th. Click here to go to our convenient web form for proposing workshops and presentations: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/959R36R. Guidelines are below and on the web form. This is a great opportunity for you to share successful models, projects and techniques. Poster Showcase & Student Project Competition! This year the Maine GIS Championships will be held in conjunction with the conference. Students of any level from middle school through graduate level are invited to present a project, video or poster. Students presenting are not required to attend the conference, but there will be additional awards for those who do attend. The student posters and projects will be judged by GIS professionals, and there will be a People's Choice Award based on votes from conference attendees. More details about the showcase and competition will follow before the start of the school year. Spread the Word! Please forward this email to anyone you know who might be interested, and stay tuned for agenda and registration information coming soon. In the meantime, please let us know if you have any questions. Cheers! Tora ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tora Johnson Director/ Instructor GIS Service Center & Laboratory Torrey 223 University of Maine at Machias [log in to unmask] / [log in to unmask] (207) 255-1214 Guidelines for Proposed Workshops, Presentations or Posters You can propose a workshop or presentation using our convenient web form here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/959R36R. Guidelines are below and on the proposal page. General Guidelines: - Deadline: August 15th - An individual may propose up to two workshops or presentations. - Abstracts should be no longer than 250 words and should describe specifically how the workshop or presentation is relevant to education. Workshops Guidelines - Workshops may be either 25 minutes or 50 minutes in duration - Proposed workshops must be hands-on and relevant to the target audience. Participants must spend the majority of the time working with software and data on activities which have direct applications in educational settings. Indicate in your abstract specifically what hands-on activities participants would engage in; what handouts, data, software and operating system(s) will be used; and the general structure of the workshop. - For workshops in the K12 track, activities should be either Mac-based or platform independent. We will have 12 Mac laptops available, and participants are asked to bring their own Mac laptops, if they have them. For workshops for higher education, you may ask for participants to bring their own laptops or you may use the 12 Mac laptops provided (equipped with Mac OSX only). We can also provide handheld GPS receivers and an LCD projector for use during workshops. Make sure to note such needs in the space indicated. Presentations (up to 25 minutes): - Presentations are invited to inform participants about available resources, present successful models for projects, and provide instruction on underlying principles such as technical topics, spatial learning/literacy, etc.. - Presentations may incorporate slide shows, printed materials, demonstrations, discussion, etc. Visit this site to propose a workshop or presentation: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/959R36R If you have any questions, please contact us at [log in to unmask] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This list Maine GeoNews (GEOLIBRARY-L) is an unmoderated discussion list for all Maine GIS Users. If you no longer wish to receive e-mail from this list, you can remove your name and email address yourself at the this web address: http://lists.maine.edu/cgi/wa?SUBED1=geolibrary-l&A=1 Or,you may also request that your name be removed by sending email to: [log in to unmask]