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Geography Awareness Week (Nov. 11-17) and GIS Day (Nov. 14) are two great ways to help teach children about the important field of geography. What do you have planned? The following USGS resources could be just what the doctor ordered!

Map Adventures Help Young People Find Their Way

Lesson plans developed by USGS scientists introduce the concept of maps and map symbols, and help students develop skills to understand absolute location — where things are on the Earth's surface. These exercises allows students to experience the view from the ground and a view from much higher, which lets them think about how objects change in appearance depending on the perspective from which they are viewed. For more information,
see "Map Adventures, Teacher Information" or "What Do Maps Show?

• Maps and education


• GIS and education


• More for educators from USGS

In a Sept. 4, 2007 Press Release, Governor Daniels announced that a new map highlighting activities, announcements and grants in every Indiana county is one of two of the most popular features on the recently redesigned IN.gov - the state's official Web site. "What's Happening in My County" is an easy-to-use map providing citizens with information about economic development projects, Major Moves announcements and grant awards in their county. The map's link is found on the Web site's home page (IN.gov).The new site uses Microsoft's Virtual Earth application. Behind the scenes, Microsoft's mapping application is "powered by" data from Indiana's 2005 Orhtophotography Project. As more and more applications are enabled by the likes of Microsoft's Virtual Earth, Google Earth, and Google Maps (these sites all use IndianaMap data) we can clearly see the value of "Build Once, Use Many Times" for GIS framework data.

Use the new web site "360cities" as your virtual travel guide when you plan your next arm chair vacation. 360 is traveling the world capturing 360-degree images of landmarks and key cultural locations. You can fully rotate the scenes, tilt and zoom. Check out the World’s Virtual Reality Portal to navigate to your next stop, put your feet up, and enjoy!

EPA just announced another upcoming application opportunity for the availability of grant funds for eligible entities (City or township governments, County governments, State governments) and non-profit organizations to provide technical assistance to communities facing brownfield cleanup and redevelopment challenges.

Eligible uses of grant funds include direct costs necessary to provide technical assistance, including costs for personnel, technical experts, materials, supplies, room rentals, travel, and transportation expenses.

EPA anticipates making one award in each of the four geographical zones to ensure technical assistance is available to communities nationwide. The deadline for EPA Technical Assistance to Brownfields (TAB) Communities is October 2, 2007.

Request for Applications (RFA) - Initial Announcement http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do?oppId=15233&mode=VIEW

Trimble Products, Training and Support In a new offer to IGIC members, Seiler Instrument offers a 5% discount on Trimble mapping-grade hardware, software, and extended warranties. Also, Seiler will offer to IGIC members a 10% discount on training and technical support agreements.

Contact Britt Gill: bgill@seilerinst.com or 317.545.7090 x35

For this and other IGIC Member Discounts, visit http://www.in.gov/igic/member/discount.html.