There is a lot of conversation about supply chains and logistics in the news these days. As a picture is often worth a thousand words, maps and tracking sites that allow students to visualize the traffic making up these supply chains can be helpful.
It is possible to track much of the shipping traffic through websites like Marine Traffic. The site is an interactive map showing the movement of many types of commercial ship traffic throughout the world. It is possible to see the general build-up around southern California ports and the normally heavy traffic around the Panama Canal. VesselFinder is a similar tool but seems to include at least some river traffic as well. It allows one to track a specific cruise ship, for instance.
Marine Vessel Traffic allows for tracking through the Great Lakes and appears to allow one to track naval ships. AdsbExchange provides similar information for air traffic. It allows one to filter by type of aircraft–Boeing 777s, for instance–by airline, or only to show military aircraft. FlightAware is a similar interactive map showing flights. It allows filtering by destination or departure location as well as by airline or aircraft type. FlightRadar24 is a third option that provides some additional features with a paid subscription.
Besides ships and planes, there are many ways to see live traffic patterns via the web. For instance, Local Conditions.com can provide traffic maps for a variety of metropolitan areas in all 50 states. The site also provides weather conditions and radar maps. Another common news item these days seems to be about forest fires. Tracking wildfires can be managed from the Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) from NASA.
Besides human traffic, the web allows one to track a lot of other life on our planet. Ocearch shark tracker tracks a number of sharks and other aquatic creatures, including seals, dolphins, and alligators. It allows viewers to track some turtles, including a green sea turtle named Andrea who seems to live near Sanibel Island, Florida. GTOPP provides a tracking website of pelagic predators including sharks, turtles, tuna, and seals. Pacificwhale.org provides an app to track whales and dolphins. A limited view map on their website provides some sighting data as well. Whalemap provides mostly data of right whale sightings in Canadian and Atlantic waters. Icarus’s Global Monitoring with Animals has an Animal Tracker App for smart devices that allows real time tracking in both English and German.
The web allows for tracking of ships, planes, whales, and other large creatures. However, the web also has the WheresGeorge website that allows one to track dollar bills by serial number. One tracked bill moved 13,905 miles in just under eight years. Of course, one important tracker not mentioned earlier tracks one jolly old elf and eight or nine reindeer by NORAD each December.
Thanks to Erin Carter, a Winona State University doctoral student and biology instructor at Century Community College, for her inspiration for a portion of this article.
Baule’s scholarly interests focus on online student engagement, educational technology-- particularly the impact of 1:1 implementations, social-emotional learning, and the history of education. Baule led several efforts to improve student emotional health and reduce discipline issues prior to moving into higher education. He also writes on aspects of early American history.
Baule has held memberships in the American Association of School Administrators, the American Library Association, the American Association of School Librarians, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, the Consortium for School Networking, the International Association of School Librarians, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the National Staff Development Council, and many of their state affiliates. He has served as a consultant in the areas of educational technology, facilities design, library program development, team building, and communications.
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