2024 Georgia Students ArcGIS Online Competition(Grades 4-12)

The 2024 Georgia map contest is part of the Esri national student ArcGIS Online Competition. This is a three-tiered celebration of student problem-solving and analysis with maps. Students research a topic of their interest and do a custom project, using a free ArcGIS Online Organization account to create a Story Map about something within the borders of the state, and submit it to their school. Schools submit up to five "school finalists" to the state. The state chooses five HS and five MS "state awardees" who each receive a prize of $100; from each set of five, the state also selects one "national finalist" for a final level of competition. This competition is open to all Georgia students (solo or pairs) in public, private, charter and home middle schools (grades 4-8) and high schools (grades 9-12).

• Students research a topic of choice about their state and create a story map about it.
• The competition is open to public, nonpublic, and home school settings in grades 4–12 in participating states.
• Students can participate in only one project, working on their own or in a team of two.
• Students can work independent of their school activities, but entries are routed through their school.

• 2023 - 2024 Map Competition overview -  AGOSchoolComp (arcgis.com) 
• Informational Seminar -  Learn How to Help Kids in Your State Create Competitive GIS Projects (directionsmag.com) 
•  Esri Competition Postcard' (2 pages) competition details  - great for explaining competition.
• Student Competition Entry Form for school (Stage #1 - Competition
•  Forms ) - for school leader/teacher in charge of coordinating school competition.
• School Entry Form to submit to the state (Stage #2 -  Competition 
•  Forms ) - for school leader submitting (no more than 5) team entries to Georgia's state team.
• Permission Form ( Competition Forms ) - for participants who want to be acknowledged at the state level, and potentially national level, by their real name)
• Extra Competition Info from Esri! -  https://agoschoolcomp-education.hub.arcgis.com/pages/resources 

• Mon April 29, 2024: Deadline for School Entry Form to be submitted to the state.
• Mon May 13, 2024: Deadline for states to submit entries to Esri.
• Tue May 28, 2024: Esri announces 2024 results.
• Thu June 20, 2024: Competition Results Webinar

• A competition open to all Georgia students in public schools, private schools, home schools, and educational clubs.
• Two competition divisions: Middle School (grades 4 to 8) and High School (grades 9 to 12)
• Students choose a topic of interest within the borders of Georgia, research the topic, map geographic findings, and present findings in a story map entry.
• Each school or club submits up to five entries to the state (GA) competition.
• Students can compete individually or as a team of two.
• Only one registration from a school or club will be accepted.
• The top five entries in both the high school and middle school division each receive $100 prizes. If submitted by a team of two, each student receives $50 prizes.
• From these awardees, Georgia will identify 1 HS and 1 MS "winners" (1HS+1MS) to represent the state in a national level (final level of competition) to be judged by Esri. The other four maps are also shared but are not judged at the national competition.
• The entries must be created in an Esri ArcGIS Online school bundle account.  Schools 

 Mapping Software Bundle 

Scoring of the projects is based on the following criteria:

1- Clear focus/topic/question/story

2- Good and appropriate data

3- Effective analysis

4- Good cartography

5- Effective presentation

6- Complete documentation.

The official competition rules including eligibility, entries, awards, judging criteria, etc. can be viewed  here 

1.  Check to see if your school already has an organizational account  if not,  apply for an Esri ArcGIS Online school organization account . Esri offers to all K12 schools (public, nonpublic, and homeschools), districts, and formal youth-serving clubs the ArcGIS School Bundle for free for instructional use, around the world. The bundle is anchored by an ArcGIS Online Organization, and includes a fleet of supporting tools. Schools in US should see  esri.com/schools  for more info. Schools beyond USA should see your  Esri distributor .
2. All contest entrants must create their contest entry using an ArcGIS Online organization account. One person at your school will be the primary account administrator. It could be a teacher, administrator, or media specialist. 
3. Register your school for the 2024 contest.
4. Download the forms. Download the forms under 'Competition Links' . Stage #1 is for students, Permission and Stage #2 Forms are to be submitted to kmobasher@ung.edu.
5. Conduct the contest at your school. Decide how you want to conduct the contest. You can do it as a class activity or as an extracurricular activity.  View free instructional resources for getting started with a variety of subjects .

Geomentors: A nation-wide network of GIS professionals are available to teachers and students. To find a geomentor in your area go to the  Esri K12 Map . Zoom in and click on one of the dots nearest your location. You will find geomentor contact information. 

Education Resources: Go to  Esri K12 GIS Organization  for access to a wide range of educational resources.

Mapping Hour:  Mapping Hour  is a set of 20 informal one-hour instructional videos about ArcGIS Online for parents and teachers, with chunks that scaffold concepts and skills for using ArcGIS Online in K12 instruction. The videos take users from an initial experience with GIS to integrating tools for an involved project.

Looking for activities for the earlier grades? Try  Undercover Mapper  from GISetc.

Looking for activities for high school students? Check out the lessons available at Esri’s  Learn ArcGIS  page. There are several resources on creating  story maps .

Want to see examples of past winners?  Go  here  for state winners and  here  for national winners.

Protecting Personal Identity (PPI) is a concern for many students, families, schools, districts, and general citizens. ESRI seeks to minimize the PPI in this competition. ESRI's  Implementation Roadmap for Schools (PDF)  provides info about minimizing use of PPI. AGO Org admins are encouraged to use generic usernames, profiles, and emails. Content made public should be transferred to a "showcase login" in the Org.

In this competition, teachers should help students avoid exposing their own PII in logins, profiles, map layers, map products, and documentation. Teachers should also guard against students sharing inappropriately any PII of other people, in map layers, photos, popups, and so forth. ESRI seeks from states only the names of the 1HS+1MS entries to the national level challenge. All other entries going from state to ESRI will be identified generically.

In submitting entries from school to state, schools should use generic identifiers unless you have signed approval by the student (or, if a minor, by the student's parent/guardian). Students should be listed as "[ST]_[SchoolName]_EntryCode" unless an appropriate permission slip is provided. Schools should keep any such permissions safely on file. See forms for state winners for copy of blank permission slip.

What makes a good map?

A good map is characterized by its clarity and accuracy, ensuring that users can easily interpret and trust the information it conveys. It should effectively represent geographic features, scale, and orientation. Additionally, an excellent map incorporates a thoughtful design that enhances the visual taking font size, color scheme, and component placement into consideration. A good map helps users navigate through information seamlessly.

What makes a bad map?

A bad map lacks clarity and accuracy, often leading to confusion and misinterpretation of geographic information. It may exhibit distorted scales or skewed orientations, making it difficult for users to grasp the spatial relationships accurately. In addition, poor design choices can overwhelm users with unnecessary clutter or lack critical elements, hindering their ability to extract meaningful data from the map.

Here is a video created by Esri highlighting important information and tools within Arc Story Map:  (4) ArcGIS StoryMaps: An Introduction - YouTube 

Winners projects from the previous year (Esri):  https://www.esri.com/en-us/about/events/uc/plenary/awards/map-gallery-results 

Winners projects from the previous year (IESA):  https://ung.edu/institute-environmental-spatial-analysis/gis/index.php 

Link to bad Arc story map examples (Esri):  https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/585db547dd7f4403bb30a3eb13fd55ad 

1. Q: "I see on the Esri Schools map ( https://arcg.is/usk12gis ) that our school has software, but nobody knows who. How do we learn who has it?" A: Email " schools@esri.com " with school name, city, state, and zip, and we can help connect you.
2. Q: "We received software. How do I set up logins for students and teachers?" A: The ArcGIS Online Organization first needs to be "activated" (a three-step process), then the Org admin can set up logins. See guidance in  https://esriurl.com/agoorgsforschools . Pay attention to "single sign-on and CSV." People will use these logins constantly, so be thoughtful about this process, do it carefully, and document what you do.
3. Q: "One of my students can't see his content when he logs in." A: Ensure the student has logged into the proper location. Students MIGHT also have created their own public login as well, and gotten the two confused. After logging in, what does the URL show to the left of "arcgis.com"? Does it look like "www.arcgis.com" or like "XYZ.maps.arcgis.com"? The first is public ArcGIS.com, the second is an Organization. A single email address can be used for multiple logins. Just like if you have two accounts at a single bank/store/socialmedia/etc, make sure you log into the correct one.
4. Q: "Students and teachers alike forget logins and passwords and we don't have 'single sign-on.' How do we help them out?" A: There are three possible steps to try, in sequence.
5. STEP1: Go to  https://www.arcgis.com/home/troubleshoot.html  and enter your email address to get a list of usernames attached to that address. (If the user's email is not used in the username profile, the user should confer with the Org admin.)
6. STEP2: Go to  https://www.arcgis.com/home/troubleshoot.html  and request a password reset for a given username. If the username had been operational, an email with a link will be sent to the email address attached to that username (might be the user, or the Org admin, or an email alias, depending on how the Org was set up). Click the link in that email to establish a new password (must be sufficiently strong), and record what password is established!
7. STEP3: If either step above doesn't work, contact " accounts@esri.com ," and clarify the situation (provide school name/city/state/ZIP, Org admin name and email, user's name and email, etc), and wait for a human to respond.
8. Q: "The info from the troubleshooting page says 'Esri access not enabled.' What do I do?" A: There are two important locations for Esri technology. Those including “arcgis.com” are sites where mapping happens. Those including “esri.com” are sites about mapping. "Esri access not enabled" does not mean a username is locked out from making maps; it just means that ArcGIS Online Org admins have not granted to that particular username the permission to sign into special places on esri.com, such as to converse on GeoNet (community.esri.com), or to take courses on Esri's Training site (esri.com/training). That username may still make maps, publish data, and share items, to the limit allowed by the Org admin. The default setting for any new arcgis.com username is "Esri access disabled" (even for the admin), and an admin must proactively change that if s/he wants to allow those special privileges. See "Managing Esri Access" (p.30) of  https://esriurl.com/agoorgsforschools . See also  https://doc.arcgis.com/en/arcgis-online/reference/faq.htm#anchor8 
9. Q: "Some users in our Org have an 'Analysis' button and some do not. How do I let others do analysis?" A: Doing analysis is a process that generates services, which get stored in one's contents. That process requires the user to have a role in ArcGIS Online with "publishing privileges." Org Admins and the standard "Publisher" role can publish, and thus do analysis; other roles lack that privilege. Custom roles might or might not have received the privilege. See  https://esriurl.com/agoorgsforschools  (p.9-11 and the links to the online help).
10. Q: "We have our logins, but can't figure out how kids can collaborate on a project." A: See the summary in  Fun with GIS 227 . That document does not mention the new StoryMap template but the same rules apply. There are ways to collaborate; you just need to know what works and what doesn't.
11. Q: "How do I know that each student actually did his or her own work?" It's always hard to tell anytime you're not seeing the activities being done. Note the usernames attached to contents. If students work in groups, have them comment on their portion, and how it looks and works, and comment on others' components. Have students do a project storyboard first, then individual tasks: design, creation, analysis, documentation. Easiest, everyone does their own project.
12. Q: "We made a spreadsheet and saved it as a CVS {sic} file but it won't drag and drop on the map or even add to contents like I've seen people do. What gives?" A: See this doc:  https://esriurl.com/tabletime . This is usually a sign of an improperly constructed CSV (comma separated values) file. A good table needs correct structure, carefully adhered to in each cell.
13. Q: "Where can I find good instruction to learn to do cool things with ArcGIS Online?" A: There are multiple resources, depending on how much you know, how much time you can spend, and what you want to learn.
14. Check out the following links:
15.  https://esriurl.com/funwithgis262  ((blog on disrupted instruction))
16.  https://www.esri.com/training/Bookmark/FKGMX8NF6  ((Training: ArcGIS Online: Getting Started items))
17.  https://teachwithgis.com  (("Teach with"-focused portion of learn.arcgis.com))
18.  https://learn.arcgis.com/en/paths/getting-started-path-for-teachers/  ((Path for Teachers in learn.arcgis.com))
19.  https://k12.maps.arcgis.com  ((K12 Org))