Press release from the Arizona Geological Survey:

The Arizona Experience is hosting a $25,000 lesson plan contest for Arizona teachers. The contest is open to all full-time teachers, grades 4 through 12, from any accredited Arizona school, including charter, alternative, and private and tribal schools. First prize awards for individual and team entries are $3,000 and $6,000. Financial support provided by Microsoft Research.

The Imagine Arizona contest incentivizes using new, online resources and visualization tools so essential for engaging students in the 21^st century. To participate, teachers must build, deploy, and submit a lesson plan that incorporates material from the Arizona Experience by 25 November 2012. Winners will be announced on 21 January 2012 and all lesson plans broadcast from the Teachers’ Center in February 2013.

Commemorating 100 years of Arizona statehood, the Arizona Experience offers a dynamic, 4-D (3-d plus changes over time), interactive and engaging web environment showcasing Arizona’s past, present, and future and addressing the question of “where we have been and where we are going.” A key objective is to provide teachers with the online resources and tools to galvanize lesson plans and meet the needs of Arizona K-12 students in the 21^st century.

In unveiling the Arizona Experience website on Statehood day 2012, Governor Jan Brewer said, “The Arizona Experience is the ultimate Centennial celebration.” “… it is designed to capture the imagination of visitors, educators, business professionals, students and Arizona enthusiasts the world over.“

The site is loaded with subject matter for the classroom, ranging from Arizona lands and natural resources to, as Governor Brewer noted, “the people who nurtured Arizona through its early years can be seen and studied and so too those who are now innovating its tomorrows.” Find pages on water, minerals and energy, human history and culture, biotechnology and life sciences, sports and recreation, aerospace science, innovation and the 21^st century workforce, and more. Digital content includes:

· Oral histories

· Interactive maps

· Lively and engaging articles

· Illustrated historical timelines

· Flyovers of iconic landscapes (produced in Layerscape)

· Videos and interviews on Arizona history, energy, biotechnology, education, and more.

At Teacher Resources, easy to read charts provide an overview of educational materials to help teachers find resources for their classrooms. Microsoft Research’s free, online Layerscape visualization software is available, too, for dramatizing lesson plans.

For information on Imagine Arizona contest details – timing, structure, essential elements, conditions and awards – visit the Lesson Plan Contest – Imagine Arizona webpage or see the contest flyer for a brief overview.

To help celebrate Arizona’s centennial, there is a new web portal that “offers a tour of the people, places, and events that defined our past and are shaping our future. The Arizona Experience is your passport to Arizona’s hidden treasures. Interactive features allow you to customize your tour. Visit Arizona’s iconic landscapes, listen to the oral histories of descendants of early explorers, settlers, and miners, or discover how our leading innovations in biotechnology, alternative energy, and high-tech products are creating a promising tomorrow. Each month during the 2012 Centennial year will launch a new theme to showcase the 48th state.”

The theme for March is mining and minerals.  The features include:

Mining Arizona’s Metals – interactive map of active mines in Arizona, Morenci mine flyover, and surface and underground mining techniques slide show.

Rock Products – Building Arizona – interactive cement plant tour, map with  locations and mineral commodities of more than 300 quarries or mines, videos and photo gallery.

Featured Artist – World renowned mineral photographer Jeff Scovil presenting a photo gallery of some of his best images of Arizona minerals, as well as a short video on “how to photograph minerals”.

Miners Story – Video gallery of the men and women of San Manuel recounting their experiences living and working in one of Arizona’s historic mining communities.

H. Mason Coggin Photo Collection – Arizona historic mines and miners photo gallery.

The Arizona Experience is a dynamic, multimedia, 4D web environment with interactive maps, hundreds – soon to be thousands – of images, historical time-lines, flyovers of iconic landscapes, interviews with Arizona leaders, featured artists, hours of videos – onsite and at the Arizona Experience YouTube channel, and oral histories that capture the experiences of the men and women that shaped the state.

According to Dr. Michael Conway of the Arizona Geological Survey, “We used Microsoft Research’s new Layerscape visualization software to produce the 3D flyovers, and we worked closely with ESRI to broadcast interactive maps that incorporate spatial data, content, interactive timelines, and photo galleries.  These dynamic tools and extraordinary content are tailor made for teachers challenging their students to explore Arizona’s past, examine its present, and imagine its future.”

Take a few minutes to look over the home page, and sample the various features.  There is more to it than initially meets the eye.  There are lots of nooks and crannies that bring up very interesting material.

Click on http://arizonaexperience.org/ to start your tour.