The Alphabet Soup of Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

What do all these initials GPS, GIS, QGIS and iGIS really mean?

Our classroom guest and GIS expert Hope Rowan taught us that all these names are simply tools that capture information about places.  The information can then be used to make maps that are a form of communication; they can answer questions or tell a story.  Maps are a visual design that identifies patterns or trends in information or simply display information in a specific way.  She gave us very interesting examples of geographic information that can be displayed in a map:  the source of ingredients needed to make a blueberry muffin; where and how far the dog ran when going along on a hike with her owner; older houses vs newer houses in a community;  wind speeds to locate potential wind power sites; and what she calls “memory maps” which are like a photo album, except they are a map that creates a record of where you went or what you did on a vacation or trip.

Hope told us that she became interested in land conservation and helping to identify places where development should and shouldn’t occur.  She owns her own company now and has made maps for towns, for land conservation groups, for science organizations, and for ordinary people.  She showed us how maps are made with layers of information, which can be from a GPS unit, or from public sources.  She used a program called QGIS to quickly build a map that showed us locations around Maine where walking is a common form of transportation.  It was interesting to think of some reasons for where those places were and not others!  We zoomed in to St George and brought in wetlands into the map, and roads.  We saw how these different layers can be turned on or off or changed colors to highlight certain information.

   

After this introduction, we all went outside and recorded several waypoints and tracks on our GPS units.  It was a cold day, but we all enjoyed being outside, and by the time we recorded our track, we didn’t mind warming back up.  Hope taught us how to upload and save our waypoints and tracks as files we could bring in to our own maps on our iPads, using an app called iGIS.  Mr. Meinersmann, our Technology Manager was on hand to help, and Grace’s dad was learning and helping too.  Before long, we had maps on our own iPads with our tracks and waypoints, and we learned how to edit the color or thickness of our track line so it would display the way we wanted.  It was a very fun morning, and we have confidence in our ability to use our GPS units and capture information about our Marsh and its surrounding lands.  With our imagination, we see there is a story to tell and questions to answer as we kick off our watershed project.

Special thanks to Hope Rowan of Western Mountain Mapping,

and to Paul Meinersmann and Peter Yanz for their assistance.

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