City of Lawton GIS Division visits Lawton Schools

Published November 18, 2022

DaLynna Wood | Multimedia Specialist

The City of Lawton Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Division celebrated GIS Day Friday, by showing Lawton Public School students that GIS can store, analyze, and display spatial data in useful ways that allow others to recognize relationships and patterns between information and location.

“We introduced GIS to the students at Central and MacArthur Middle Schools by explaining how maps and spatial data are important to solving real-world problems and the decision-making process,” Senior GIS Analyst Kristi Shannon said. 

This presentation showed how GIS is widely used in municipal government to understand, analyze, and map geospatial phenomena. Departments like City Planning utilize these maps for tasks such as sidewalk planning, but many other departments use GIS information as well.  

Students also were introduced to the 2023 Esri National Student ArcGIS Online Competition, where they can use GIS software to create a StoryMap. The ten best entries (five from middle schools, five from high schools) in the state will receive a $100 gift card and one winner from each age group will go on to represent Oklahoma at the national level.  

During the presentation, students got to interact with GIS software and create their own data in real time, and get involved.  

The GIS Division interacted with the students in the hopes of getting the next generation excited about maps and data, and how the two work together.