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Celebrate Earth Day with ArcGIS activities

Celebrate Earth Day this year with ArcGIS activities. Discover ArcGIS resources to get your students thinking spatially about the importance of the Earth. Using the 2021 Earth Day survey, you and your students can get involved by adding one commitment you are making to support the Earth this month and explore data that will be contributed by others across Canada.

Earth Day is celebrated internationally on April 22nd. It’s a time to stop and reflect on the importance of Mother Nature and all she provides us. With this in mind, share what you’ll be doing to commemorate our precious Earth this month and throughout the year. Enter your commitment into the Earth Day survey and explore the data! We encourage you to share the survey with your students and others in your community.

This is an image of a tropical mountain view.

The Earth gives us so much to be thankful for. Let’s celebrate it this month!

This is a screenshot of a ArcGIS Dashboard with an embedded survey, map and other data.

Enter your commitment to the Earth in the Earth Day survey.
Note: The data in this screenshot were added as examples and have been removed.

Looking for other ArcGIS resources that you can explore with your students? Check out some of our activities and lessons below:

How Green is your Neighbourhood?
In this lesson, you will explore your neighbourhood/school block using a map to discover high and low risk contributors to climate change.

Do you live in a Complete Community?
In this lesson, you will explore and analyse your community to look for features that make up a "Complete Community" - a place where most of your daily needs are fulfilled in terms of where you live, study and play.

Explore your community with this resource to see if it is a "Complete Community."

Active Transportation: A Cycling Tale of Two Cities
The purpose of this activity is to examine the cycling infrastructure that currently exists in two of Canada's largest cities - Toronto and Vancouver. Examples of bike lanes will be highlighted to show the work each city is doing to support active transportation.

Exploring Climate Change in my Community
Even though climate change is a global phenomenon, we can explore it at a local level by looking at how human actions can affect the environment. In this lesson, students will use a survey created by their teacher to collect data collaboratively on climate change contributors and reducers in their home neighbourhood block.

Marine Debris in the Pacific Ocean
In this lesson, you will gain a deeper understanding of ocean currents, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and the impact of marine debris on humans and ocean ecosystems.

Explore more resources from Esri Canada’s K-12 Resource Finder.

Are you a beginner and want an ArcGIS Online account for yourself and your students? Go to k12.esri.ca/#access to request your account.

If you are interested in creating your own ArcGIS Survey123 and ArcGIS Dashboards, check out our resources to get you started:

This post was translated to French and can be viewed here.

About the Author

Angela Alexander is a K-12 Education Specialist in the Esri Canada Education and Research group. She has over 15 years of experience working with educators across Canada. Angela focuses on producing geographic information system (GIS) and curriculum-specific resources, and conducting and creating custom workshops for educators. She manages the GIS Ambassador Program and is the Technical Chair for the annual Skills Ontario GIS competition. Angela also writes monthly posts for the Esri Canada Education and Research blog, highlighting K-12 educators and partners, new ArcGIS resources and GIS-related events.

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