Short course will discuss teaching geospatial technology If you are hungry for a just a taste of the various geospatial techniques available for your classroom, come to a special academic smorgasbord being held Wednesdays, June 14 and 21, at Mayville State University. During these two Wednesdays in early summer, this workshop is planned to be offered there: GEOG 900: Geospatial Technologies for Implementing National Geography Standards. These two days will be used to introduce in-service educators from all grade levels about the basics of map reading and interpretation, global positioning systems (GPS), remote sensing, and geographic information systems (GIS) in the context of the National Geography Standards. Space is limited to only 20 in-service educators because the credit fee, tuition, and textbook costs (a copy of the latest edition of Mapping Our World) are being absorbed by NDView. There is, however, a non-refundable $25 reservation fee due May 31, 2006. This workshop is being sponsored by NDView, a federally-funded program for promoting the use of geospatial technologies in pre-college, college, and post-college settings. Housed at the University under the direction of Bradley Rundquist, this program has awarded a grant to the Dakota Science Center (DSC) to work in collaboration with the North Dakota education group of the Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium (ND EdPARC) and academic professional geographers from MaSU and UND to provide this two-day program. It is spread over two Wednesdays deliberately on the premise that a person needs some time to absorb being introduced to certain aspects of GPS and GIS in order to avoid "brain freeze" from the amount of necessary instructional details while starting to learn these geospatial techniques. Then, too, having the week between sessions allows the learner a chance to identify problems and to develop questions that can be handled and answered on the second meeting date regarding the exercises from Mapping Our World. Dr. Vandeberg (geography), is the lead instructor and is noted already by his undergraduate and graduate students as a dynamic, learner-centered individual. He is looking forward to the opportunity to be working with K-12 teachers and administrators in this particular NDView workshop. Ms. Munski will be one of the on-site coordinators with Dr. Meartz, and she is hoping that teachers will consider follow-up activities with DSC during Geography Awareness Week 2006. The off-site coordination will be handled by UND Extension with the assistance of Dr. Munski (701-777-4591). To register please send your name, address, phone# and email address to me. -- Doug Munski, Professor, Geography, douglas.munski@und.edu, 777-4591