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| Twenty-seven high school students and teachers from Baton Rouge, Natchitoches and Alabama and Arkansas recently attended a five-day short course at LSU to learn to use some innovative computer software. The 36-hour course was conducted in LSU’s Computer-Aided Design and Geographic Information Systems laboratory -- a shared resource of the LSU College of Design and the LSU Department of Geography and Anthropology. Some of the participants trained on software known as Geographic Information Systems, or GIS. Others learned to use Global Positioning Systems, or GPS, software. GIS software allows users to create databases on things that are spatially distributed, such as buildings or water systems. For example, users could create a database for a building that would include that building’s floor plan, contents, number of employees and other facts about the building’s functions. Such a database would be invaluable to the local fire department if there were a fire in that building. GPS software allows users to map coordinates of certain places through the use of satellites. The mapping device can also be used as a surveying tool. Jack Haynes, director of LSU’s CADGIS lab, said the experience of learning to use such software is invaluable for high school students. “Normally, students need to get to the university level to have access to this kind of software and to learn to use it,” Haynes said. “Hopefully, these students and teachers will take this information back to their schools and teach others to use it.” Haynes said the CADGIS lab, working in conjunction with the LSU Division of Continuing Education’s Office of Youth Programs, planned, organized and hosted the course. The CADGIS lab’s system manager, Farrell Jones, taught the GIS portion of the course, and LSU geography and anthropology instructor Michael Leitner taught the GPS portion. Students and their teachers -- called facilitators -- participating in the program, were: ALABAMA: ALABAMA SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS, BIRMINGHAM -- Facilitator Ron Hardy, Tiffani Newbold and Paula Province. ARKANSAS: ARKADELPHIA HIGH SCHOOL, ARKADELPHIA -- Facilitator Marcie Prince, O.J. Macon and Creed Tumlison. CAMDEN FAIRVIEW HIGH SCHOOL, CAMDEN -- Facilitator Cindy Riggs, Jack Lohman and Michael Suttle. HAMBURG HIGH SCHOOL, HAMBURG -- Facilitator Jeff Longing, Tess Mann and Kara Morgan. LAKESIDE HIGH SCHOOL, LAKE VILLAGE -- Facilitator Ann Rossini, Ross Sims and Jeremy Trigleth. MALVERN HIGH SCHOOL, MALVERN -- Facilitator Mary May, Jeremy Goldberg and Jeremy Kratz. NORTH CENTRAL VOCATIONAL CENTER, LESLIE -- Facilitator Barbara Cole, Bobby Engles and Shannon Jahrling. LOUISIANA: GLEN OAKS HIGH SCHOOL, BATON ROUGE -- Facilitator Arronza Major, Howard Hall and Tremaine Sanders. LOUISIANA SCHOOL FOR MATH, SCIENCE AND THE ARTS, NATCHITOCHES-- Facilitators Richard Loftin, Darrin Magee and Everett McCoy. -30- |
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