President Barack Obama recently announced Esri has pledged $1-billion of mapping software available free to US K12 schools. Since 1969, Esri, headquartered in Redlands, California, has built geographic information system (GIS) software to enable organizations to create responsible and sustainable solutions to problems at local and global scales. Understanding how to use effectively use GIS will open the doors to many careers.

Students love maps, especially when they can tweak them.  GIS mapping software engages their instinct for visual understanding with the capacity to explore and investigate questions. Esri software is used across the globe, in nearly every industry, to make maps and analyze data.  From farming to defense to modeling climate to routing school buses, users on workstations and laptops collaborate with others on tablets and smartphones, building data, designing maps, and making decisions. Visit http://connected.esri.com/ for more information about this free program and for examples of how high school students are using GIS to solve problems.

Students in the Information and Communication Technologies Software and Systems Development Pathway prepare for careers related to computer science that involve the design, development, implementation, maintenance of systems that rely on software programs to satisfy the operational needs of modern business organizations. Standards within this pathway are idea for framing a project that integrates academic and career technical subjects using GIS mapping software to better understand how to find solutions to problems. 

For more information and to request a free ArcGIS online organization account, click: Here!