Transcending Borders Between History & Environment

     Tara Barber was first introduced to the GIS Lab when she went to the Office of Student Financial Aid to find an on-campus job as a first-year student. Although she didn’t know anything about GIS, Tara found the idea of map making and collecting data interesting. As an Anthropology student, she saw the potential for using GIS programs to map out data about different groups of people.

     During her time working for the GIS lab, Tara has learned to use several software programs, including Google SketchUP, Unity, and ArchMap. She says that her favorite program so far has been Google SketchUP because, as an Art minor, she really enjoys being able to use her artistic skills to render virtual models of homes. Tara has utilized her newfound GIS skills on a variety of projects, such as the Historic Homes and Chino Farms projects.

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The Knowledge of GIS Meets the Hope of Medicine

     Tyler Brice is among the most recent Washington College graduates as a member of the Class of 2013 and he hopes to use GIS in his career aspirations. Tyler hopes to pursue a career in medicine and feels that he will be able to use GIS to map and analyze information about how diseases move through a population, and find solutions for controlling and preventing outbreaks.

     Tyler Brice studied Biology with a minor in Chemistry. He is a Chestertown native who decided to come to Washington College after discovering that the other colleges he had looked at did not fit his needs. Staying in Chestertown has allowed him to live at home, and continue to enjoy all of the outdoor activities Chestertown has to offer.

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Memoirs of a Marketing Team

     The GIS Marketing Team is heavily invested in the community as an extension of the GIS lab. At the beginning of this school year, the GIS Marketing team was developed as a brand new sector of the GIS program. “A lot of the year was trial and error,” said Marketing Team Captain Olivia Hanley. “Our team took what we already knew about social media and marketing and implemented that knowledge into whatever task we were given. With Stew’s assistance and confidence in our team, we eventually acquired ‘clients.’ It is our job to monitor their social media sites and gain as much social media presences as possible.”

     The Marketing Team’s work is continuous because new skills are constantly being learned and perfected. Team members must also keep up with the pace of the current social media world. “We have made a great deal of progress since the beginning of the year,” said Olivia. “In the coming years, we plan to grow as a team and further define precise marketing plans for each client we obtain.”

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GIS Supports Eat Local Efforts

Lea Delfs

     The Washington College GIS Lab is currently working on updating the Upper Shore Harvest Directory which will formally launch in May 2013. Lea Delfs, an international exchange student from the University of Tuebingen in Germany, has been working on this project throughout the semester. Lea supports eating locally grown food because it is healthier than buying food at the supermarket, it helps to improve the environment by reducing the amount of emissions released into the air, and it helps sustain and improve the local economy.

      The Upper Shore Harvest Directory is a brochure and new interactive website helping to connect residents of Cecil, Kent, and Queen Anne’s Counties in Maryland with local producers of sustainable agricultural products and services. The directory helps people find local businesses such as fruit and vegetable farms, fishing charters, restaurants, and many more. It promotes both environmental and economic sustainability by encouraging residents to keep their money in the community and reduce their carbon footprints by choosing local businesses.

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Dover High School Utilizes WC GIS Curriculum

     The Washington College GIS lab wanted to create a curriculum and make it available to public and privates schools with students of all ages, including K-12 programs. This program introduces students to the many skills that they will need if they want to continue studying GIS. Dover High School of Pennsylvania has been working with WC GIS for at least six years. Collaboration began after Mr. Benton met WC GIS director Stew Bruce at a GIS training course.

     Members of the WC GIS staff worked together to create this curriculum with ESRI and the Maryland Department of Education. Stew divided the work between different staff members to create one program. The overall goal in creating this curriculum was to provide a way for schools to offer GIS courses to their students free of charge. This alternative curriculum, as opposed to ones that can be very expensive, provides the same opportunities to schools that may not be able to afford programs like this otherwise. This curriculum is available online and is a great way for schools to help their students of all backgrounds to expand their education. This curriculum is offered to students in grades K-12. Elementary school students learn the basic concepts of GIS such as how to read a map and what the different parts of a map are like the compass and the legend.

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Classroom to Town: Youngest in Class Tackles Projects for Future Use

     Stephen McFall is the youngest student currently enrolled in Intermediate GIS, a course taught on the WC campus by GIS Director Stew Bruce. Steve has been working at the WC GIS lab since he came to campus in the fall. Each student enrolled in the class is working on an extensive project that must be completed by the end of the semester.

      Steve generally works on 3D projects in the lab as well as MapStory Foundation projects, but for this project he wanted to try something different. For his semester long assignment, Stew suggested that he compile information into maps to be given to the Greater Baden Medical Services. This seemed interesting, so Steve began working.

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Internationally Known

      Hjordis Lorenz, an International Student from Stuttgart, Germany, became interested in GIS after meeting Stew Bruce at a meeting for International Students. She decided to stop by the GIS lab to see if she could learn any more, and her visit turned into a job.

      Hjordis is a freshman, majoring in Psychology, with a minor in Spanish, and she hopes to eventually work in the field of criminal psychology. Although she has never considered herself to be very tech-savvy, she feels that the GIS program has many practical applications in criminal psychology, and is eager to learn how to use the technology.

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