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In my efforts to push GIS and Geospatial Technology, I jump on ever opportunity to tell other about my passion for GIS.  In correlation with the 2009 Geography Awareness Week, I participated in my local GIS Day event and also presented at a high school.  At the GIS Day event I worked a booth at which I spoke with attendees and did various demonstrations.  The most rewarding of these was the high school presentation.arcgis-explorer

At a local high school, I put together a presentation to give students, parents, and teachers an overview of GIS.  An Agriculture teacher was trying to push a new GIS course where students can earn both high school and college credit.  A partnership was established between the high school and a local community college.  I brainstormed various topics I could discuss and decided to give a brief overview of GIS and then show some applications.  I took advantage of the new ArcGIS Explorer 900 to give the presentation.GIS Definition

I first defined Geospatial Technology with a simple slide and referenced a globe image to discuss how objects relate to the earth and how these objects can be measured, analyzed, and visualized.  I then went on to discuss how GIS is applicable to all 16 career clusters.  I basically wanted to get across that no matter what industry you are interested in, there is some type of GIS application.  GIS is definitely not limited to just a few areas.  From there I covered three of the career clusters: Education & Training; Law, Public Safety, Corrections & Security; Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources.

Career Clusters

For Education & Training, I showed some applications in my position as a planning project manager for a school system.  These mainly focused on locating schools, maintaining boundaries, performing enrollment forecasting, and analyzing reassignment scenarios.

In the area of Law, Public Safety, Corrections & Security; I created a mock crime scene.  I told how a person went missing and we needed to identify their home and work locations.  With that a travel route was established.  More extensive search was required; therefore, a search radius was created around the two key locations.  With the information collected from searchers, a vehicle was found which lead to further evidence and eventually the victim being found.locations buffer

Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources provided an opportunity to discuss site suitability analysis for a campus garden.  GIS enabled me to create a model of the campus.  Then criteria were analyzed that included: open space, sunlight, air circulation, slope, wind protection, and water sources.  Each of these analyses was combined to identify the most suitable areas.  These could then be analyzed further to locate the garden.

The interactive part of ArcGIS Explorer really was the selling point.  PowerPoint presentations are fine, but Explorer helped make the technology come alive.  These students showed a true interest in learning more.  It was awesome to see these students impacted in a positive way by the technology of GIS.

To learn more on how you can become involved in your local schools, check out the GeoMentor Program.