GIS & Schools
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PeopleGIS has conducted several projects involving students, teachers, and school programs. Projects have included the involvement of students in their own community's GIS project, creation of a summer institute for high school teachers and their students, assistance in the development of a vocational education program, GPS training for high school students, management of summer student interns, the mapping and photo-documentation of schools in support of public safety preparedness, and the mapping of community resources with students of all ages in communities across the country.
It has been a pleasure designing, implementing, and managing these programs. Possibly no other facet of our business is more rewarding than working with young people. Often bored with typically mundane school tasks, many students find the topics of GIS and GPS to be appealing and interesting....to a point where they follow through on their project efforts and gain valuable experience which will follow them for years.
The programs PeopleGIS has designed have always gone beyond the technology. In Littleton,
New Hampshire, students are working closely with the town staff, including Public Works, Assessing, Planning, and
community project leaders, conducting data collection tasks, data analysis, map production, and direct project
support. In doing so, these students learn far more than just another software package; they learn about what
happens inside Town Hall.
In Perry, Iowa, students learned how small hand-held GPS units could be used to map community resources. PeopleGIS provided a GPS laboratory consisting of eight hand-held GPS units, town-wide mapping, and instructional materials. Aside from the more "standard" mapping concepts, students also learned that GPS could be mounted on their Go-Karts built by the Industrial Arts class which competes with area high schools. Aside from the novelty of such an application, believed to be the first of its kind, it was found to be more than useful to track their vehicle's speed and distance traveled.
PeopleGIS also supported a student effort in Cincinnati, Ohio, where groups of kids mapped social service programs, churches, and parks in their neighborhoods, with resulting data being published on the Internet. The focus of their efforts was to identify what resources their communities already had so that they could identify what resources their communities needed.
More recently, PeopleGIS has worked with schools and students in three different states mapping their school facilities alongside local public safety officials. The resulting data was integrated with our CrisisResponse software for use in crisis situations. CrisisResponse incorporates multi-media data formats, with the base mapping providing context for public safety officer use in the field. In each project, students worked side-by-side with school and public safety officials in the field, building databases that hopefully will never be used. This level of experience is not often available to high school students, especially with this level of importance.
School projects and working with students must be looked at as a two-way street. Communities can create extremely valuable tools with student labor time, and students can experience state-of-the-art technology being implemented in their own communities. But make no mistake, getting kids involved can be a difficult task. Students require a great deal of management. Projects need to be clearly and concisely defined. Interim and final goals need to be established up front, and reinforced throughout the project life cycle. And all work products need to be put into context: young people get bored easily!
But the effort is well worth it. Opportunities to embrace our youth and involve them in very real ways is not only good business, it is also good for the community.
©2006 PeopleGIS Inc.
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PeopleGIS has conducted several projects involving students, teachers, and school programs. Projects have included the involvement of students in their own community's GIS project, creation of a summer institute for high school teachers and their students, assistance in the development of a vocational education program, GPS training for high school students, management of summer student interns, the mapping and photo-documentation of schools in support of public safety preparedness, and the mapping of community resources with students of all ages in communities across the country.
It has been a pleasure designing, implementing, and managing these programs. Possibly no other facet of our business is more rewarding than working with young people. Often bored with typically mundane school tasks, many students find the topics of GIS and GPS to be appealing and interesting....to a point where they follow through on their project efforts and gain valuable experience which will follow them for years.
The programs PeopleGIS has designed have always gone beyond the technology. In Littleton,
New Hampshire, students are working closely with the town staff, including Public Works, Assessing, Planning, and
community project leaders, conducting data collection tasks, data analysis, map production, and direct project
support. In doing so, these students learn far more than just another software package; they learn about what
happens inside Town Hall.
In Perry, Iowa, students learned how small hand-held GPS units could be used to map community resources. PeopleGIS provided a GPS laboratory consisting of eight hand-held GPS units, town-wide mapping, and instructional materials. Aside from the more "standard" mapping concepts, students also learned that GPS could be mounted on their Go-Karts built by the Industrial Arts class which competes with area high schools. Aside from the novelty of such an application, believed to be the first of its kind, it was found to be more than useful to track their vehicle's speed and distance traveled.
PeopleGIS also supported a student effort in Cincinnati, Ohio, where groups of kids mapped social service programs, churches, and parks in their neighborhoods, with resulting data being published on the Internet. The focus of their efforts was to identify what resources their communities already had so that they could identify what resources their communities needed.
More recently, PeopleGIS has worked with schools and students in three different states mapping their school facilities alongside local public safety officials. The resulting data was integrated with our CrisisResponse software for use in crisis situations. CrisisResponse incorporates multi-media data formats, with the base mapping providing context for public safety officer use in the field. In each project, students worked side-by-side with school and public safety officials in the field, building databases that hopefully will never be used. This level of experience is not often available to high school students, especially with this level of importance.
School projects and working with students must be looked at as a two-way street. Communities can create extremely valuable tools with student labor time, and students can experience state-of-the-art technology being implemented in their own communities. But make no mistake, getting kids involved can be a difficult task. Students require a great deal of management. Projects need to be clearly and concisely defined. Interim and final goals need to be established up front, and reinforced throughout the project life cycle. And all work products need to be put into context: young people get bored easily!
But the effort is well worth it. Opportunities to embrace our youth and involve them in very real ways is not only good business, it is also good for the community.