Every year ESRI hosts a national Student Mapping Competition utilizing Geographic Information System (GIS) technology for students in grades 4-12 to tell a story about their state. This competition empowers students to think spatially, problem solve, critically think and be creative within the classroom setting. Keep on reading if you have, or know, kids in grades 4-12.
In 2023, working with multiple state agencies (Libraries, Education, Historical Society and Office of Emergency Management), the Data and Spatial Services team supported the competition and three students from McCall-Donnelly High School participated. This is up from 0 students in previous years. To keep the momentum going, Megan Wheatley and our CWI intern, Ingrid Gilbert, have worked on creating an updated resource to get students and teachers around Idaho interested in the competition which kicks off in September. Note that this resource is 100% built within GIS, so everything you see is completely out-of-the-box technology that we can leverage in-house at ITS. Bonus: Schools receive ArcGIS School Bundle completely free of charge and the winning entries can get a prize of $100.
