Cartographies of Indiana: Dynamics of Environment and Society
THE NATIONAL COMPETITION
Middle and high school students and their teachers across the U.S. are invited to explore their world and create
interesting online maps about their home state. The ArcGIS Online U.S. School Competition 2022 is open to
middle school (grades 4-8) and high school (grades 9-12) students in the U.S. who analyze and present data via an
ArcGIS Online presentation, web app, or story map.
THE INDIANA COMPETITION
The 2022 theme for our statewide selection for the national competition is “Cartographies of Indiana: Dynamics
of Environment and Society”. The maps should be about places and themes related to Indiana and tell a compelling
story. What kind of story could be told with maps? There is a wide range of possibilities, from the local ecology of
your hometown, stories about immigration to your community, natural treasures in your community/state, or
peculiarities of Hoosier culture, environmental problems and other interesting topics.
THE PARTICIPANTS
The Geography Educators’ Network of Indiana (GENI) invites all middle and high school teachers and students to
take part in this competition. All grades 4-12 public, private, or homeschooled students in Indiana (including 4 th –
grade elementary students) are eligible to enter the contest either through formal OR informal organizations.
Each participating school selects up to 5 submissions.
THE MAP
The competition is an initiative to stimulate the use of GIS technologies in schools and teach students to engage
with their reality, analyze problems, and think critically about space and place. Participants use ArcGIS Online to
create an original map that features an interesting story about Indiana. You can find a large number of story map
examples at https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/arcgis-storymaps/stories and instructions to get started at
https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/arcgis-storymaps/resources. ArcGIS Online is available to schools in the
United States free of charge. Go to http://www.esri.com/industries/education/software-bundle to sign up
for a free ArcGIS Online school organization account.
PRIZES
All students who submit maps and their teachers will receive a participation certificate from the Geography
Educators’ Network of Indiana (GENI). The five maps judged the best in each category (middle school and high
school) will be awarded $100 Amazon.com gift certificates.
HOW TO GET STARTED?
Samples from previous competitions and additional information are available on the following webpages:
http://esriurl.com/agoschoolcomp (quick intro)
http://esriurl.com/agoschoolcompinfo (full details).
For further material and assistance, please get in touch with Jörn Seemann (mappingindiana@gmail.com), go the
Mapping Indiana Facebook Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/2467716709977131/) or visit the GENI
website for updates (https://geni.iupui.edu). The deadline for submitting student maps for the statewide competition is May 9, 2022, 11:59 p.m.
State Awardees will be announced on May 16, 2022