The Geospatial STEM Academy: Preparing High School Students for Geospatial Technology Careers is a summer STEM education training program that engages one hundred 9th through 12th grade students from the Atlanta and Orlando regions in community-based geospatial technology educational experiences. Summer 1 in 2015 occurred in Atlanta, GA at Georgia State University. With additional funding in Summer 2016, we plan to expand to Orlando, FL and Atlanta, GA!
Check out a short video showing the highlights of our summer geospatial STEM Academy. Video created by GSU graduate student, Adam Acker. We offer the most unique high school GIS training program in the country given our focus on community GIS and citizen science! More information soon about summer 2016.
Academy Mission: The mission of the Academy is to introduce students to applicable and transferrable geospatial technology skillsets for the in-demand, high growth industry of geospatial technologies. The Academy’s mission offers high return on investment as it aligns with a growing nationwide STEM career direction. Geospatial technologies have recently been identified as a high-growth industry by the U.S. Department of Labor. Within geospatial technology fields, the projected employment growth from 2010 to 2020 of geoscientists is 21 percent, environmental engineers is 22 percent, and computer systems analysts is 22 percent (U.S. Department of Labor, 2012). Although these career opportunities are growing at a dramatic rate, U.S. high school students are often unaware of these opportunities until later in their college careers as most U.S. high schools are not adequately preparing students for these careers given that geography, geospatial technology, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) courses are not prominently offered in most of the nation’s high schools.
To learn more about the exciting work we do with youth and GIS, please visit the project site at http://sites.gsu.edu/stemacademy