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Louisiana GIS Education Project Puts Students to Work

A new interactive Web site will allow teachers and students to assist the state in emergency preparedness by collecting geographic information.

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Louisiana State University's CADGIS Research Laboratory and the Louisiana Center for Technology (LCET) have developed an interactive Web site for the Quest with GIS project.

The project, which officially begins on Wednesday, is aligned with state curriculum standards and will also provide students and teachers the opportunity to assist their state in preparation for future emergencies.

The Quest with GIS Web site gives students a place to submit information about school facilities related to sheltering evacuated families in emergencies such as hurricanes, tornadoes, oil spills and homeland-security incidents.

By enabling schoolchildren to collect the data rather than sending state employees to the school buildings to capture the data, the state can save thousands of dollars. The resulting database of accurately mapped facility information will help the Department of Transportation and Development plan evacuation routes and aid the state Office of Emergency Preparedness, state police, American Red Cross, and other agencies with responsibility for public safety during emergencies.

Students can also view an aerial infrared image of their school's neighborhood and determine the exact latitude and longitude of the building's main entrance.

In addition to including a survey form to facilitate students' data collection and reporting about school buildings, the Web site provides detailed lesson plans for grades K-4, 5-8, and 9-12.

The Quest with GIS interactive Web site will help maintain a state focus on preparing for future emergencies, officials said, and the GIS initiative will encourage state agencies to collaborate with academia to help protect communities.

"We have been working on integrating GIS technology into social studies curriculum for more than a year," said Sheila Talamo, director of LCET. "We want Louisiana students to be familiar with this exciting technology. This year's Quest with GIS is a relatively simple project requiring no special training. It's an introduction to the importance of GIS."

The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, the Louisiana Office of Emergency Preparedness, the American Red Cross and the Louisiana GIS Council have served as advisors to the project.

The state worked with Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions to create the Quest with GIS project.