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Smithsonian Institute

Blue Raster & Smithsonian Promote Internship Program with ArcGIS StoryMaps

Blue Raster worked to develop an ArcGIS StoryMap to promote the Smithsonian Institution's Leadership for Change Internship Program. The Leadership for Change Internship, helmed by Smithsonian Affiliations, provides paid internship opportunities for students at museums, cultural, and educational organizations that are partners within the Smithsonian Affiliations network. To help showcase the impressive reach of Leadership for Change, Smithsonian Affiliations collaborated with Blue Raster to develop a StoryMap highlighting past internship projects and explaining the program to potential applicants.

What Leads to Successful StoryMap Development?

Blue Raster worked directly with Smithsonian Affiliations to plan and create an ArcGIS StoryMap to meet their goal of promoting the Leadership for Change Internship Program. In planning out the StoryMap content, Smithsonian Affiliations used the StoryMap Accelerator offered by Blue Raster. The StoryMap Accelerator aids development through a series of guided discovery questions that help to outline the narrative and content to be used in the ArcGIS StoryMap.

Highlighting the Internship Experience

Smithsonian Affiliations identified StoryMaps as their preferred platform because it enabled a multimedia showcase of both the opportunities afforded through the Leadership for Change Internship Program and the impressive student internship projects created across the country.

SI Affiliates StoryMap Home Page

The StoryMap provides a multimedia experience for those looking to learn about Leadership for Change

Smithsonian Affiliations is utilizing the StoryMap as their homepage for the Leadership for Change Internship Program this year. Blue Raster worked within the Smithsonian’s timeline to allow for a launch date right at the beginning of 2024.  The deadline to apply for the Leadership for Change internship program is February 26th, 2024. We encourage everyone to share this great opportunity with young people that may be interested in applying.

Map Showing national impact of intern projects

The map portion of the StoryMap highlights the nation-wide community impacts of past internship projects

Enrich your Projects with ArcGIS StoryMaps

Blue Raster is here to discuss your project and explore the possibilities of ArcGIS Story Maps. Our talented team of designers and GIS analysts will work closely with you to understand your goals and vision. Blue Raster can turn your ideas into immersive and engaging narratives that leave a lasting impact. Contact Blue Raster now to embark on a journey of storytelling, innovation, and project enrichment.

SI Affiliations StoryMap Overview

Overview of ArcGIS Story Map

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Make Way for Whales (And Environmental Hope)

The Smithsonian Institution’s Ocean Initiative supports the Smithsonian’s mission to increase the public’s understanding and stewardship of the Ocean. Researchers have been working to track the migratory patterns of whales to better understand patterns and find ways to protect them. One of the biggest threats to migratory whales are collisions with ships. In the early 2000s, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) first began shifting shipping lanes to protect right whales in the Bay of Funday and Boston Harbor.

Tracking Whales

Over the last decade, researcher Hector Guzman has pioneered a satellite-positioning system to follow and track other migratory whale species in Panama, Costa Rica, and more recently Chile so that similar measures could be taken in ports in in central and South America. His work and the resulting policy changes in shipping routes has reduced the probability of whale-ship collisions in Panama by 95%.

Smithsonian Whale StoryMap

The Ocean Initiative wanted to highlight this work as part of its educational offerings to K-12 students. Dr. Guzman’s work provided a positive story about how scientific research can inform and change policy for the betterment of nature.

Make Way for the StoryMap

The Smithsonian engaged with Blue Raster to create an ArcGIS Story Map that illustrates the research and its impact in an engaging and conversational way that would connect with students. Utilizing ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS StoryMaps, the Blue Raster team built the “Make Way for Whales” StoryMap that shows how shifting shipping lanes increased the safety of whales. Additionally, the StoryMap includes:

    • Background from research papers that explains the danger shipping poses to whales and the trends impacting whale populations
    • Description of how whales are tagged and tracked
    • Details on the geographies of the coastlines studied
    • Interactive maps that show the overlay of GPS whale locations and ship traffic
    • Custom illustrations depicting Traffic Separation Schemes (TSS) being used that avoid the migratory patterns of whales
Smithsonian Whale StoryMap
Whale StoryMap images

Blue Raster used research data (compiled in spreadsheets) to build the maps and other custom graphics on the page. The resulting story shows how trade can continue to happen while being responsive to the needs of wildlife. It is an encouraging message that they hope will inspire future scientists, researchers, and environmentalists.

Biodiversity Monitoring With Soundburst

Remote monitoring devices are evolving into an essential tool for biodiversity monitoring. In conjunction with Blue Raster, scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute created Soundburst, an acoustic application to rapidly process and identify species calls in sound files produced by remote sensors. Through Soundburst, you can pair acoustic recorders with eMammal cameras to monitor birds, frogs, and bats along with land-dwelling mammals.

The application was created using R and RShiny, with functions from R packages Seewave, Tuner, and Monitor. The app allows users to rename sound files, clip sound files to create files of a shorter duration, and generate spectrograms. Users can also annotate spectrograms with species identifications, and generate a csv of metadata and identifications. Finally, users can choose to load their files to an Amazon Web Services cloud account.

Smithsonian Story Map – Tradition & Art of Living China

The second in a series of story maps for the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Tradition and the Art of Living China highlights the culture bearers appearing at the 2014 Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. Built by Blue Raster and Cricket Media, the map allows users to experience the artistry and heritage of those keeping China’s diverse traditions alive.

Tradition and the Art of Living China Story Map built by Blue Raster

Although the map has since been removed from the web, it was created using ArcGIS Online. The story map integrates photographs of the Folklife Festival participants and their work. As a result, it offers a comprehensive look into the cultural heritage of China. From calligraphy and pottery, to martial arts, users worldwide can explore the unique stories of these tradition bearers.

Tradition and Art of Living China

Smithsonian’s Virtual Field Trip around the Globe‏

The Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and Cricket Media, an education media company and global learning network, recently invited kids from around the world to identify and interview people who exemplify important traditions in their communities, then asked them to document and present their stories.

Traditions-of-World-640

Cricket Media and Blue Raster created the Traditions of the World story map using ArcGIS Online, highlighting the top video submissions from kids ages 8-18 from around the world.  The result is an interactive virtual field trip with lively hosts that include a 9 year old boy from West Bengal India showing traditional saris being hand woven and students in China documenting everything from dumpling making to martial arts.

The challenge was launched in coordination with the Smithsonian Center’s annual June-July Washington D.C.-based Folklife Festival and extends the folklife experience to millions of students globally. The Story Map has since been removed from the web.

“The challenge inspired students to explore the richness of their local traditions and unique stories of tradition bearers, and the map created by Blue Raster captured this amazing student work in an engaging way that will preserve these traditions for generations to come,” said Cricket Media CEO, Katya Andresen.  “It’s a truly unique, global digital museum, curated by kids.”

Traditions of Calligraphy with Ruochen


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