GIS Day 2015

Written by Jared Covili on November 17, 2015. Posted in New Technologies, STEM and STEAM.

Last week a few UCET board members had the chance to participate in GIS Day at the Larry H. Miller SLCC Campus. What is GIS Day you might be asking yourself? GIS stands for Geographic Information Systems – in a nutshell, GIS is all about maps and the data used to create them. GIS Day is an annual event to introduce people to the amazing world of digital mapping. The event was sponsored by the Utah Geographic Information Council and organized by a committee of GIS professionals from across Utah. Almost 700 students from 6 different elementaries were able to come to the event and they paricipated in 4 workshops to learn about digital mapping. Here is a break down of the day:

Workshop 1 : What is GIS? Students learned how a map helps us learn about the real world.

Workshop 2: Using Lydar to Make Mapping Easier. Students used lydar to help them determine the height of box towers they created in teams.

Worskhop 3: ArcGIS Online. Students help identify the spreading zombie contagion using ArcGIS online.

Workshop 4: Putting it all Together. Using skills and data from other workhsops students created a final project.

Overall, GIS Day was awesome! I loved watching the kids get excited about using information in new ways. If you are interested in learning more about GIS and ArcGIS Online please contact Jared Covili – jared@uen.org

Jared Covili

Jared Covili has been a regular UCET presenter and attendee since 2003 - when the UCET bug first bit him. Jared has been on the UCET board since 2008 and served as UCET President in 2011-2012. He is currently serving as ISTE Affiliate Rep. Jared works at UEN (tech training), the U of U (adjunct teaching), and Corwin Press (book writing and speaking).