GIS Day 2006 at
Loudoun County
Leesburg, Viginia, USA
Posters Spread GIS Awareness across the County
 Terry Ryan, Executive Director of the Engineers and Surveyors Institute, addressing the second annual Loudoun GIS Forum. |
Planning for GIS Day 2006 in Loudoun County, Virginia began early and was instrumental in the long-lasting success of its GIS Day celebration. During the 2006 Loudoun County GIS Forum—a mini-GIS conference organized annually by the Loudoun GIS Focus Group, a coalition of local government agencies in the county that includes the county's Office of Mapping and Geographic Information—a session devoted to brainstorming ideas for GIS Day activities acted as the perfect venue for GIS Day collaboration.
"Ideas ranged from designing a GIS Barbie to developing posters that could be placed in the county's schools. The former has yet to be acted on, but the latter seemed like an idea worth trying," says Larry Stipek, director of the office of Mapping and Geographic Information, Loudoun County.
Although the idea was still somewhat abstract, the common goal among the group was to help students understand the practical uses of GIS and encourage them to explore GIS to accomplish real-world tasks.
Periodic multidepartment meetings were held to coordinate the design and develop the content for a total of nine 4' x 4' posters that showcased the county's versatile use of GIS. First, a standard poster template was prepared; then each department worked on its own version specific to the tasks made more efficient through the use of GIS. One poster, highlighting the history of GIS in Loudoun County, was a particular source of pride, because 2006 marked the twentieth anniversary of Loudoun County's GIS.
 Larry Stipek, Director of the Loudoun County Office of Mapping and Geographic Information, in his backyard vineyard. |
Posters were distributed to seven county libraries and science classrooms at each of the county's 10 high schools and 13 middle schools, nearly 14,000 students were exposed to the posters. A full set was also on display in the Loudoun County Administration Building lobby. The posters encouraged many science and social science teachers to adopt GIS in their curriculum, were used in an Advanced Placement GIS class at one high school, and served as a valuable resource for students who were required to make their own maps for a class assignment.
Based on the favorable response from the 2006 efforts, the collection of posters for GIS Day 2007 will be expanded. "The goals for this year are to encourage students to think geographically, use GIS technology, develop science fair projects with spatial components, and create maps for the Loudoun GIS Forum and ESRI User Conference," says Stipek.
Loudoun County has several ideas for new posters including demonstrating the use of GIS in historic and archaeological resource identification. In conjunction with the county's 250th anniversary, the Office of Mapping recently reproduced two historic maps of the county: an 1853 map published in part by Robert Pearsall Smith in Philadelphia and a 1926 U.S. Postal Service map showing rural delivery routes. A digital orthophoto was also created from scans of the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) 1957 photography; these photos show the county as it was before suburban development. The early mapping efforts will be modified into a poster and coupled with a Web service. Students will locate their homes on a 2007 county map and compare this information to the historic maps and images, enabling them to explore their history through GIS. "We want to encourage students to use GIS technology in a way that is comfortable to them and to explore their world and their interests," says Stipek.
Loudoun County is an early adopter of GIS, having used ESRI software since 1986. Stipek has been with Loudoun County for 17 years and is currently an active participant in the Loudoun GIS Focus Group. He has pioneered Loudoun County's efforts to utilize GIS Day as a tool for educating the community about the powerful role GIS plays in their lives.
View the 2006 posters:
- How does 911 know your location when you call from a cell phone?
- How is GIS used in the Health Department?
- How is GIS used in parcel mapping?
- How is GIS used in building schools?
- How are school boundaries determined?
- How is GIS used to map water resources?
- How can GIS be used to help start a business?
- What are historic districts?
- What is the history of GIS in Loudoun County?