Overview

The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) is pleased to announce the ArcGIS Online United States Competition 2017 in which students create and share maps about their home states. ArcGIS is a geographic information system (GIS) for working with maps and information that can be represented geographically. GIS-based projects provide for integrated learning experiences across content areas and allow for community collaboration to tackle local and global challenges. ArcGIS software is freely available for K-12 instructional use from Esri. To learn more about the software go to http://www.esri.com/connected. Instructional materials posted on Esri’s website can help introduce students to web mapping through topics such as population dynamics, water pollution, marine debris, and resource consumption and wealth. Additionally available is GIS professional learning for educators.

The competition is open to middle school and high school students who can analyze, interpret, and present data via an ArcGIS online presentation, web application, or story map. A school can submit up to five projects to the competition website. Submissions must be received no later than April 30, 2017. A group of Michigan educators and GIS professionals will judge the submissions, selecting five submissions each from middle and high school to send to Esri for inclusion in the national competition. Michigan’s ten winning projects will each receive $100. A national winner will be selected for both middle and high school, both projects earning a trip to the 2017 Esri Education Conference in San Diego. Competition details are available at: http://arcg.is/2jfTB1r.