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August/September 2004 |
Volume 45, Number 1 |
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GIS and Community Mapping: How Children Can Use Technology to Help Shape Our FutureHave you ever had one of those experiences where something turns out to be much more challenging and fun than you thought it was going to be? I had such an experience this summer when I enrolled in a Community Mapping Institute. If you're not familiar with Community Mapping, you may want to be; it's a trend that could change the way city planning is done. The Community Mapping Institute was sponsored by the Orton Family Foundation, a non-profit organization started by the same family that runs the Vermont Country Store. Although the class was primarily offered for science and social studies teachers in Denver Public Schools, the department I work for will also be involved in the community mapping projects that are done, so I was allowed to take the class as well. While the class emphasized how to get students involved in their communities, it also revolved around GIS and GPS technologies, which is how members of the community (students) help local agencies plan new projects by gathering and compiling field data using GPS units and GIS software. If you've used Mapquest, Realtor.com, or any similar site, you've seen GPA and GIS technologies in action. In fact, if you stop to think about it, everything from paper maps to daily weather forecasts now rely on GPS and GIS. So what are GPS and GIS, and what's the difference? GPS refers to the Global Positioning System, which consists of 24 positioning satellites owned by the U.S. Department of Defense that orbit the earth. GIS, on the other hand, stands for Geographic Information Systems, and refers to the manipulation of the data transmitted by the GPS, or more specifically, any software, database, workstation, network, etc., that is used to convert GPS information into user-friendly communication. In my class, the GIS software used was ArcView, which is manufactured by ESRI, the leading GIS software manufacturer. ArcView is just one of many software programs made by ESRI, and is slowly being replaced by ArcGIS. GIS technology has become so prevalent on the Web that it now has its own XML schema. After learning the basics of GIS and getting to field test our GPS handheld units, my team got to map out traffic signs around the CU Denver campus, and then overlay our map with a second key that showed which signs are in need of repair. Although our project was for test purposes only, this is a good example of how GIS can be used by students to contribute to local government agencies. For examples of projects students have already completed in Colorado and other states, go to http://www.orton.org/cmapgallery/. Here are some other great Websites to visit if you want to explore GIS further:
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