Got GIS?

My original plan for this blog entry was to shamelessly promote GIS Day (November 16th)  – write something about this year’s t-shirt – and link it somehow to Geography Awareness Week. Fortunately, one chance occurrence has changed all that.

Picture this: a Sunday afternoon spent grading and helping students in my lab, and a workshop in the next room.  A chance encounter in the hallway.  “So, I see you teach in the Spatial Analysis Lab?  What is that?”, she asks quite innocently.  I explain.  “Oh (awkward pause) … well … what department would something like that fall under?”  I ignore the “something like that” part and answer as sweetly as is possible while drawing blood on my tongue because I know what’s coming next.  “But,” she continues … not meaning to be ignorant or offensive in any way, “what is it called?”  “GEOGRAPHY”,  I repeat .  “Well, I’ve already got a GPS.”  And with that, my new friend exits and my heart races like something from Rocky and Chariots of Fire combined and the conviction I have to educate people about my discipline is so deep I consider wrapping myself in maps and walking around campus as “Geography Girl”.  Thankfully, I’ve got two teenage daughters at home who know how to draw the line so that they aren’t forever banished from public life.

There is a great article written by Dr. Jerome Dobson of the American Geographical Society called “Bring Back Geography!”  In it he addresses both the idea of geographic ignorance (not knowing where places are) and ignorance of Geography – the discipline, which, by the way, is much more than knowing your state capitals, longest rivers, and highest mountain peaks.  “Geography Awareness Week” was created in 1987 by the National Geography Society (and others) to address this knowledge gap.  GIS Day is held on the Wednesday of Geography Awareness Week – its purpose – demonstrate the important contributions GIS is making to the discipline of Geography and to our world.

Now for the t-shirts and shameless promotion.  Each fall my Introduction to GIS students help the University of Richmond celebrate GIS Day by hosting an open house in our lab, inviting speakers to campus, baking (and eating) cakes, and wearing cool t-shirts.  Visitors can spend 6 minutes or 6 hours at this year’s event.  Our shirt design – “got gis?” has taken on special significance for me after a recent encounter with one of my students.  She and her partner were attempting the first part of a fairly complex three part analysis.  Their task – areal interpolation – involves disaggregating data from census tracts and then reaggregating it for hydrologic units.  Numerous frustrating failed-attempts and numerous questions answered with more questions (“Professor, why xyz?” … “Well student,” I answer wisely and patiently, “have you considered abc? Or perhaps the impact of d and h?” … I try to direct the student to find the answer instead of giving the answer outright) had nearly driven this pair to the breakpoint when suddenly she jumps out of her seat (and I’m not exaggerating – while parts of this blog entry may be fictional this is not one of those parts) and yells “GET SOME!” which in this context means “Oh yes, I am so satisfied with myself and really excited that I solved this problem that was very challenging” – perhaps a raunchy equivalent of yippee or yahoo.  That’s deep learning. So, for those who don’t “got gis?” I say only this: get some.

– Kim Klinker