Polish Students Study Cultural Heritage and Natural Resources

Podlasie Heritage Association (PHA) and ESRI Polska have initiated an educational project to introduce GIS technology to secondary school students in the Podlasie Province of Poland.

According to ESRI (CA, USA) the plan is to set up GIS clubs in the schools so students can learn how GIS can help in environmental conservation, cultural heritage preservation, and the sustainable development of their region. The students will be involved in building an integrated GIS database, which will include the cultural and natural resource information of Podlasie. “The most important aspect of this initiative is the interdisciplinary approach in using GIS for research. Among the participants, we can find students and teachers of such diverse subjects as geography, biology, history, linguistics, and IT technology,” said Miroslaw Stepaniuk, PHA chairman and project coordinator.

Students will use ESRI's ArcView 9.1 software to evaluate and record the traditional geographic names of the region. Their methodology will include the examination of existing maps and land register records, interviews with elderly residents to record the origins of local geographic place-names, and the recording of the results of their research on regional maps that they will develop.