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Boys from Wolmer’s win GIS Competition

November 16, 2004

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Adjudged the most deserving for their well-researched project on traffic congestion, students from Wolmer’s High School for Boys have won a geographical-based competition, which saw six secondary schools taking part.
Eighteen year-old Tremaine Buchanan, a sixth form student from the winning Wolmer’s team is now attending a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) conference in Tallahassee, Florida, as his prize.
The recent competition, which Tremaine and his schoolmates won, was an initiative of the Ministry of Land and Environment. It required high school students to demonstrate ample knowledge of GIS, a mechanism used by the Government, through its various agencies and Ministries, to carry out such functions as traffic management, site selection, and disaster management.
At a brief ceremony held at the Ministry’s Half-Way-Tree Road offices yesterday (November 15), Land and Environment Minister, Dean Peart presented Tremaine with his airline tickets to attend the Annual GIS Workshop Conference, which is being held from November 16 to November 19 in Florida.
The Minister congratulated Tremaine for the excellent work he and his colleagues did in their project titled, ‘A Study on Traffic Congestion Along the Old Hope Road’.
Mr. Peart said he was “impressed” with the project, and encouraged the students to maintain high standards in the future.
Speaking with JIS News, Tremaine said he was eager to attend the Conference abroad as it would allow him the opportunity to deepen his understanding about GIS, and permit him to interact with other young persons.
Senior GIS Trainer in the Ministry, Valerie Grant-Harry told JIS News that the Ministry has sought to introduce GIS in more than 40 schools across the island. She said that GIS was important to high school students as “the power of GIS is only limited by one’s imagination. Anything that has a location component GIS can play a part in it. From the delivery of a package to site selection, and planning”.
Mrs. Grant-Harry revealed that the Ministry was currently preparing a “curriculum infusion guide” that would seek to integrate GIS in schools. She said the guide could be incorporated into such subject areas as social studies, information technology and geography.
“For now, we [have introduced GIS] by informal means. We train teachers at schools and ask them to find ways in which they incorporate GIS into their lessons,” she explained.

Last Updated: November 16, 2004

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