A Call to Action: Day of Geography 2017 – Monday, November 13

On Wednesday, November 1, 2017 Geospatial Niagara had the privilege to attend and have a booth set up at the District School Board of Niagara’s (DSBN) Parent Involvement Conference (PIC). This conference is an annual event that encourages members of the various Parent Involvement Committees of local schools to attend and take in workshops related to any number of challenges that students and parents face. These include not only academic challenges but also strategies around bullying or dealing with new technologies etc. Also included in the event is a vendor area where numerous organizations (for and non-profit) can promote their products or services directly to the parent committee representatives. For the third year in a row, Geospatial Niagara has had a booth there, promoting geoliteracy and community participation through Geography and the various projects that we have on the go.

So what does this have to do with Day of Geography which will be held on Monday, November 13, 2017? As we continued to communicate and engage with a number of parents throughout the evening, over and over we were told how important they thought that Geography and geographic education is and how happy they were that an organization such as ours existed to support students and educators. A project such as Day of Geography, promotes geoliteracy and careers in the geo-realm. 

For those who do not know about “Day of Geography”, back in 2014 I had stumbled upon the “Day of Archaeology” site and thought that having a similar initiative for streams of Geography, Geospatial technologies, Environmental Sciences, Geology etc. would be beneficial to students around the world as well as educators and guidance counselors. The premise is to encourage those working in the field of Geography, GIS, Environment etc. to share stories about their work day. By sharing these stories, it is hoped that students and the broader community can gain an appreciation for the work that we do and, as it relates to students, perhaps spark an interest in pursuing a geo-based career. Since 2014, the Day of Geography site has had visits from almost 2700 cities representing 144 countries from around the world.

All posts are categorized for the benefit of curious students, so if they are interested in posts about careers in Planning, they can search for those posts specifically. The most recent post to Day of Geography was provided by Dr. Joseph Kerski (@josephkerski) and it was a great to be contacted by him to participate. He provided his story in June which leads me to let you know that we’re not just accepting contributions on the day of. We’ll take them throughout the year as well.

What we need as we approach Day of Geography 2017 is more participation. MUCH more participation. We encourage all geo-professionals, as well as post secondary students to participate and share your passion for all things geo! If you are a member of a professional organization (ie. URISA, or GITA) encourage other members or the organization itself to participate. The more information that can be provided to students, the better decisions they can make towards their future.

You can login to the Day of Geography site via Facebook, LinkedIn or Google to create an account or you can write your piece and email it to geospatialniagara@gmail.com along with any images and your location to be included on our participant map.

Let’s see if we can at least double the number of posting this year!

We look forward to your participation. Please reach out to us if you have any questions.