Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK

What is rapidly becoming a multi-billion dollar industry continues to be a very popular project with young people involved in the Oklahoma 4-H program.

Global Positioning Systems/Geographic Information Systems, also known as GPS/GIS, is finding a niche with Oklahoma 4-H’ers, said Jeff Sallee, assistant Extension specialist with the state 4-H office.

“Through 4-H, club members have a lot of opportunity to learn about GPS/GIS. With summer vacation right around the corner, 4-H’ers will have even more time to learn about all aspects of this project,” Sallee said.

One of the best places to learn more about this cool 4-H project is on the Oklahoma 4-H program Web site at: [1]. Click on “Science and Technology” along the left side of the page, then click on Geospatial. There are a number of links related to all sorts of lessons and activities involving GPS/GIS.

4-H Youth Favorite Places [2] is another link that can be found on the 4-H Web site. This site is designed to help teach youth about GPS/GIS, as well as provide a service to the local community and beyond. Youth who participate in this project can learn more about digital photography and photo editing, latitude and longitude, computer technology, map reading, using a Global Positioning System receiver, technical writing, database use and entry, collaboration and research.

The idea behind the project is to map every favorite place in every 4-H community. Then, as 4-H families go on vacation they can stop and see various ‘favorite places’ along the way or once they reach their destination. Since the sites were selected by 4-H’ers, they will be family-friendly places.

“We have a number of counties around the state that are actively involved in GPS/GIS projects. One county has mapped out illegal dumps. Another group mapped all of the trees on the school property and indicated which ones were at risk and which ones needed to be cut down,” Sallee said. “There is another group of 4-H’ers who mapped county historical sites.”

Other county activities include mapping the hiking trails in the Wichita Mountains, mapping the horse trails around Waurika Lake, mapping public storm shelters and mapping county golf courses. There is a group of 4-H’ers in Georgia who, in light of the chaos in 2005 during Hurricane Katrina, mapped out the highway escape routes.

“They can map out just about anything,” he said. “They can map the local fairgrounds, schools or the location of their 4-H meetings. What’s great about this project is they can work as individuals or in a group. The maps they produce can be hand drawn or computer generated.”

Other fair activities include making a poster of how a GPS works or draw a poster identifying the various parts of a map.

Geocaching, [3] which is basically a world-wide hide-and-seek game, is another popular activity that involves GPS/GIS. Sallee said this is a great introductory activity for those who are just learning about GPS/GIS, and is a fun way to learn about the technology.

“The GPS field is huge and will continue to grow. By the time current 6th graders are ready to graduate from college, the GPS/GIS industry will be about $757 billion per year.”

Contact: Jeff Sallee jeff.sallee@okstate.edu