More than 200 students from throughout Baton Rouge participated in the largest observance of GIS Day in the city’s history last week, and interest in the program required organizers to add a second day of programming.
The East Baton Rouge Parish Library, the City of Baton Rouge, Baton Rouge Green and the Louisiana Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems Institute came together to put on the event.
Two hundred students from all around East Baton Rouge Parish learned about one of the world’s fastest-growing, industry-spanning fields: Geographic Information Systems.
Professionals led students through three educational, hands-on activities followed by a public speaker event that included 15-year-old Baton Rouge native Alyssa Carson, an astronaut candidate for NASA’s Mars One Mission. LSU’s Louisiana Geographic Education Alliance provided an extra-large “floor map” and an interactive GIS learning activity, recognizing that last week was National Geographic Week.
Baton Rouge Green and the City of Baton Rouge led students outside who were mapping and collecting tree data with the MyTree App.
The LARSGIS Institute taught attendees how to create their own Story Maps using ArcGIS Online; Story Maps are an interactive mapping interface that combines media and location data to form a new way of interpreting information.
Half a dozen GeoMentors, professionals working as GIS Analysts, led groups of students between activities, interacting and discussing career goals.
GIS Day was held East Baton Rouge Public Library on Goodwood Boulevard, attendees were welcomed by City-Parish Government Chief Administrative Officer William Daniel.
Speakers included Carson, Fran Harvey, executive director of the LARSGIS Institute; Warren Kron from the City of Baton Rouge; Andrew Tatman of the East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library, and EBR School Superintendent Warren Drake. Participants were from local middle schools and high schools.
“The geospatial job and industry market is growing at almost 35 percent a year, and the commercial sector of the GIS industry grew by 100 percent last year,” said Harvey, whose non-profit helped organize and sponsor the event. “From the petroleum and shipping industries to consumer-fed apps on Smart Phones, GIS is a growing economic force in the world. We’re excited to have offered this program for the students who will be the workforce and industry leaders of the future.”