Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Outreach

GIS in Schools
Over the past four years the LINK-GIS partnership has worked with several local schools to bring understanding about GIS to the classroom. LINK-GIS has worked with classroom teachers to provide appropriate curriculum that fits into the general area of the students study; Social Studies, Math or Science. We spend a normal class period with the students teaching them the concepts of GIS and how it can be used as a learning tool. Our presentation in the classroom usually consists of a PowerPoint presentation and a hands on demo using LINK-GIS data and ESRI's free software Arc Explorer.

Open House
Once a year the LINK-GIS partnership hosts an open house in June where the partners, and users of our data have booths and presentations set up to demonstrate how each agency is using GIS. The intent of the open house is to provide an open forum where the local citizens and communities can visit and learn about local GIS and how different agencies use it and the services they provide.

GIS Day
This is an international celebration of everything Geographic Information Systems. This is part of Geography awareness week. LINK-GIS host events in cooperation with other LINK-GIS partners to educate the public about uses of GIS and how data can be obtained. Recently we have focused on participating at state, regional and local level events.

For more information regarding any of these programs, please contact the GIS Department at tbrush(at)nkapc.org.