NKAPC staffer Kyle Snyder will expand NKAPC’s GIS outreach program this summer when he teams up with NKU’s Center for Integrated Natural Science and Mathematics (CINSAM) to teach a half-day summer camp the week of June 28 through July 2.
Snyder, a principal GIS specialist at NKAPC, plans to share the topic and a hands-on demonstration with students in CINSAM’s Middle School Emerging Technologies Camp. The camp, facilitated by community professionals and NKU faculty members, is designed for gifted students as an enrichment camp in applied science, mathematics, and technology including engineering concepts.
While Snyder has been sharing the “What is GIS Technology” lesson to schools in the area for a while now, this is the first time NKAPC is participating in NKU’s summer camp program.
| “We’re always looking for emerging technologies—what’s new and what’s happening,” said Thomas Brackman, physical science and pre-engineering recruiting director for NKU. “So, the GIS technology expertise NKAPC is bringing will be something new because we haven’t done anything like this. We’re looking forward to it.” |
Snyder is also looking forward to working with this specific group of learners. “Students who have an aptitude for science, engineering, and math should be fun to work with. All of these kids should be interested.”
The 15 to 16 eager students expected to attend the emerging technologies camp will learn how GIS brings geography, mathematics, and IT together.
“I’ll talk about the idea of layers and data as well as attributes in a table being tied to geometry on a map,” Snyder said. “I’ll also show examples of applications for GIS locally that we’re doing to help them get their heads around it.”
The students will then use LINK-GIS data to do a problem-solving project as well as work with the LINK-GIS website.
In addition to GIS, other topics the camp covers are entomology, physics, and nanotechnology. The students will put together a quick presentation of what they learned to present to their parents at the end of the week.
“We just scratch the surface,” Brackman said. “But you can ignite that fire and expose students to different topics.”