Houston Students Using GIS to Impact Community
HOUSTON, TX: The High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice (HSLECJ) is now back in session and learning concepts that few other schools across the country offer their students. Recently named in the top 10 percentile of high schools in Houston’s Independent School District, the school has invested in creating outstanding Law and Criminal Justice thinkers. One of their programs making a positive impact in the classroom and the community focuses on geospatial technologies. They offer a class dedicated to geospatial technologies using Digital Quest’s GIS in Homeland Security Community course.
Students begin the year learning the basic concepts behind geospatial technology and project management in the context of Homeland Security. By the end of the course, they apply their knowledge to real-world issues and come up with solutions that can be applied in everyday life. Considering crime in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, students researched the problem and showed not only a correlation to area crime rates and displaced Hurricane Katrina populations, but also identified specific locations that were affected. “The kids came up with this study because it was something that they were seeing and they were anxious to know if they could use their geospatial skills to show if this influx was true, if it was a problem, and more,” said teacher, Valgene Holmes.