More than 500 high school geography students and teachers will get a special hands-on look at cutting edge geographic information system (GIS) technology at the seventh annual GIS Day Tuesday, Dec. 6, at McMaster.

Hosted by the School of Geography & Earth Sciences and the Centre for Spatial Analysis, this event fulfills part of the Ontario geography curriculum for Grades 9, 11 and 12 students. Students and teachers from 17 high schools from Hamilton, Burlington and Oakville have registered for the daylong workshop.

“GIS is used by everyone from farmers to retailers, and from federal civil servants to local city planners,” says John Drake, director of the School of Geography & Earth Sciences. “People in nearly every profession all over the world are reaping the benefits of this extraordinary technology, and GIS Day gives us an opportunity to make students aware of the contributions that GIS is making in the fields of science, technology, information management, and the humanities.”

GIS Day is a global event that educates people about GIS technology, a computer-based mapping tool that takes information about streets, buildings, water features, and terrain and turns it into visual layers. GIS is used throughout the world to solve problems related to the environment, public health and health care, land use, business efficiency, education and public safety.

During McMaster's GIS Day, students will learn to use GIS to develop maps of Canadian national parks, global earthquakes and seismology, and Mount St. Helen's. These exercises will give them a unique perspective on the forces that shape our world.

Students will also learn about GPS technology and attend presentations by local industry and government representatives.

President Peter George says, “At McMaster, an important part of our high-school outreach program is to make our research excellence more accessible to high school students and teachers. GIS Day highlights our strengths in geographical analysis and systems and enables high-school teachers and students to receive hands-on GIS training and skills upgrading. This is an excellent example of a McMaster priority – partnering with our secondary schools to improve the quality of education.”

A special feature of this year's GIS Day is a keynote address by Bob Young (Tiger Cats owner, CEO, Lulu.com, co-founder, Red Hat). Ticat coach Greg Marshall, along with Kojo Aidoo, Ryan Donnelly, Jesse Lumsden and Fabio Filice — graduates of McMaster University — will be on hand-on to talk to students about preparing for University.

An annual tradition of GIS Day at McMaster is to encourage high school students to submit posters in a GIS poster competition. These posters explore areas of GIS applications that the students find interesting.

McMaster's GIS Day is part of the School of Geography and Earth Science's Geomatics High School Outreach Program, which raises the visibility of the field of geomatics among high school students and their teachers.

Dino Crapsi, head of geography at Westdale Secondary School says: “The McMaster GIS Day has many elements that make it a very worthwhile experience for our students. The guest speakers, and workshops enable our students to get a 'big picture' from GIS users out in the real world. The research poster contest also provides our students with the opportunity to showcase their own progress and research problem solving skills using GIS software. All in all, this full day of guest speakers, hands on workshops, and interaction with members of the McMaster University geography and geology department is a rewarding opportunity for our students.”

To access video presentations and GIS poster competition images, log on to http://sciwebserver.science.mcmaster.ca/gislab/workshops/gisday2004/index.html.