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Cupples' ([3]) provocative paper explores the processes and practices of "geoscientisation", focusing on its material consequences and the forms of "epistemic erasure" (p. 4) it yields. AAS: ...has 22 National Committees for Science that are widely representative of its disciplines. We believe this title may help to distance the discipline from people's images of school geography and its classification in school curriculums as a humanity, and emphasise that it is a scientific discipline spanning the environmental and social sciences. The International Science Council's ([7]) vision is "to advance science as a global public good" and its mission is "to act as the global voice for science.". [Extracted from the article]

Geospatial technologies span governmental, academic and private commercial sectors, and their potential for growth is considerable. The USA and Australia have trouble meeting demand for geospatial skills. This paper reports on a national survey of 157 organisations that identified a similar geospatial shortage in New Zealand. The paper also details dimensions of the shortage and the current frameworks for meeting the shortfall of skilled professionals. Arising from this skills gap, key challenges facing both the geography and geospatial communities are identified and discussed: raising student numbers, gaining experience, up-skilling current professionals and raising awareness of the value of the geospatial skillset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Julie Cupples does geographers a great service by naming and analysing the effects of "geoscientisation", a pattern of institutional reorganisation whereby former Departments or Institutes of Geography are brought together in larger academic units with physical science disciplines like geology, earth sciences or environmental sciences (Cupples, MS 1). "[A]sserting our right to analyse our working conditions", as Cupples does with this paper, is simultaneously more difficult and more necessary than ever (Cupples, MS 10). As Cupples rightly points out, critical human geographers working in a geosciences context are often pressed by physical colleagues to defend their critical stance toward a naïve positivist epistemology long consigned to the dustbin by philosophers of science (Cupples MS 8). [Extracted from the article]

Greenspace can have a significant positive effect on improved concentration duration, behaviour in the classroom, and educational and social development for school-aged children. This paper uses Geographical Information Systems to explore academic achievement and greenspace in New Zealand. Using multivariate linear regression, the association between greenspace exposure and the percentage of children achieving above academic attainment expectations was examined, controlling for gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Socioeconomic status was the most significant predictor of academic achievement. Weak associations between greenspace, academic achievement, gender, and ethnicity were observed. Unexpectedly, academic achievement negatively correlated with greenspace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the revised New Zealand Curriculum provides an excellent opportunity to investigate GIS-based learning pedagogies within the social sciences classroom. The new curriculum privileges inquiry-based activities with a more participatory approach to learning, providing students with greater autonomy in their studies. This paper emphasises the value of GIS technology for extending student learning when situated within a problem-based learning (PBL) framework. Using GIS, students undertake geographic inquiry through meaningful learning grounded in constructivist learning theory. PBL is well suited as an instructional strategy for integrating GIS as students actively learn when presented with authentic, real-world problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vegetation in Antarctica consists mainly of algae, moss and lichen and is interesting to research because of the isolation and extreme growing conditions. An understanding of this vegetation is important for both the management of tourism in Antarctica, and because it provides a potential barometer of global climate and environmental change. This paper demonstrates two applications of GIS to mapping vegetation in Victoria Land, Antarctica. The first application computes the changes that have occurred to the vegetation within a 120 m by 28 m plot between 1962 and 2004. The second application maps and analyses the growth of a lichen specimen ( Buellia frigida) during the same period. These applications demonstrate that GIS is a multiscale technology that can be used to detect detailed change in vegetation growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]