Episcopal Middle School Students will use a GIS to locate/clean up litter and show their results on November 16 at the Main Branch of the EBR Parish Library.

BATON ROUGE, LA , UNITED STATES, November 11, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Global Geospatial Institute (GGI) and Clean Pelican are partnered with Episcopal Middle School students to bring awareness about litter throughout the Baton Rouge community. Since 2014, GGI has continued to provide K-12 students the support they need to succeed in the study of geospatial technology. GIS Day, to be held on November 16, from 12:30 PM to 4:30 PM at the Main Branch of the East Baton Rouge Parish Library, 7711 Goodwood Blvd, is One Fun Day to Learn About:

• How GGI brings GIS into Louisiana Schools
• How Drones are tools used for GIS
• How Clean Pelican incorporates GIS in Litter Clean-Up
• Map It Clean! Episcopal Middle School student presentation
• The ArcGIS Online Story Map Competition

GGI allows students to use geographic information system (GIS) technology in a hands-on experience to solve community problems such as litter. GGI's partnership with Clean Pelican, a nonprofit organization that holds monthly litter pickups and educates youths and adults about litter prevention, began when GGI, Founder and Director Fran Harvey, GISP, approached Clean Pelican to involve her students in a project involving real-world problem-solving.

"Community cleanups are a popular activity to teach children about the environment and foster engagement in the community. By utilizing GIS technology such as the new StoryMap 'Map It Clean!' application, our students can collect and visualize data while designing a solution and action plan to solve the problem," says Harvey.

The Episcopal Middle School Students participated in the Map it Clean! litter project and utilized the ArcGIS Field Maps technology on their iPads in the field to map, categorize, and collect litter throughout the City of Baton Rouge. The students also used the ArcGIS Insights application to create a report showing the progress of their litter cleanup. The results of Episcopal Middle School Students' Map It Clean! project will be presented to the public during GIS Day on November 16 from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. at the Main Branch of the East Baton Rouge Parish Library, 7711 Goodwood Blvd., Baton Rouge, LA.

Clean Pelican, whose mission is to work to create and maintain a clean, beautiful community where businesses and families want to stay, work, and play, was founded in 2021. What started as a group of friends picking up litter and wanting to make s difference quickly developed into recruiting local businesses to invite employees to participate in cleanups. “As a Baton Rouge native, mother, and small business owner, I believe that creating a beautiful, clean community is a way to love each citizen of our state by making our state a more welcoming and safer place to raise our families and grow our businesses. I feel that being a part of Clean Pelican is a way that I can show love for my neighbor,” says Johanna Landreneau, Founder, and Interim Executive Director. Co-founder and Vice Chair Glenda Shannon Pollard, an alumnus of Episcopal High School, had the goal of starting a Clean Pelican anti-litter club at schools and was excited about partnering with Harvey and GGI. “I saw the litter explosion in Baton Rouge over the past 2 years and had to do something. I started organizing friends and family to help clean up our city. Clean Pelican was organized to do just that so our children can return home to their nest after college and are proud of their city.”

GGI partnered with Clean Pelican and Laurie Adams, Councilwomen for District 11 in East Baton Rouge Parish, in April 2022 to train students on GIS technology using Baton Rouge bus benches. Students were given the unique opportunity to use GIS technology to research how to make improvements to the advertising bus benches throughout the city, including maintenance, repairs, safer placement, and reduction of litter and blight. Clean Pelican members drove the students to all the roadside benches in East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council's District 11. The students then recorded the locations, whether the benches were in good repair, if the grass was cut and if there was litter around the benches. Students John Harden and Caroline Waters presented Clean Pelican’s report to the Metro Council. Because of this collaborative effort, the city now has an effective 21st-Century digital tool to track the status of Baton Rouge bus benches.

About Global Geospatial Institute (GGI)

GGI has the only industry-accredited program in the State of Louisiana that prepares high school students and lifelong learners with the tools they need to advance in workforce development and compete in a global job market. As the ever-expanding field of technology touches every area of our world, Louisiana students can learn new technological applications and earn a GIS Industry-Based Certification (IBC). For more information, call (225) 939-1091or visit gginstitute.org.

Fran Harvey
Global Geospatial Institute
+1 225-939-3907
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