On November 16th, we celebrated GIS Day by inviting GIS students from Washington-Lee High School to visit Blue Raster. Led by teacher, Ryan Miller, Washington-Lee offers several technology classes linked to James Madison University. For the fifth year, Blue Raster has hosted the class, giving students insight into the connection between what they learn in the classroom and the work GIS professionals do in the world today.
The Blue Raster team shared real-world GIS success stories through a round of lightning talk presentations on ongoing projects and then invited the students to use their GIS skills with a fun Collector for ArcGIS challenge. After collecting and mapping data on transportation in their county, students saw the application of GIS in a new meaningful way.
“It’s such a tremendous asset to be able to link my high school GIS students with the professionals at Blue Raster. Blue Raster’s willingness to dedicate time, effort and resources, into a GIS day collaboration, benefits my students as they get to observe incredible GIS work and potential career opportunities. The students and I are so grateful to Mike, Stephen and to the entire Blue Raster team.”
We wrapped up the day with viewing their data collection in the Operations Dashboard and enjoying some pizza and desserts.
