Community Atlas Students

Barrington Middle School of Barrington, Rhode Island, was awarded the designation of Model Project on June 26 during the User Conference. The children and their teacher, Mrs. Lyn Malone, received a Compaq Pocket PC with ArcPad for their outstanding Community Atlas work.

At right: Barrington Middle School students and their teacher, Lyn Malone, pose with Esri president Jack Dangermond.

The Community Atlas project is sponsored by Esri's Schools and Libraries Program as a way to get students and teachers across the country to define the nature of their community by posting descriptions and maps about it. The presentations are combined on a Web server and can be searched by characteristics and explored for similarities and differences.

Barrington students posted 13 maps created with ArcView GIS or using online mapping engines. The maps include information on open space, shopping areas, recreation, hurricane risks, and the number of single-family homes in the town.

"They crafted a strong presentation of their hometown vision," says Charlie Fitzpatrick of Esri's Schools and Libraries Program. "They focused on the major patterns that are visible and important in students' lives."

"To me the Community Atlas was a great way to introduce concepts of geography that students would be using over and over again as we investigated other regions of the world," says Malone, the school's regional world geography teacher.

For information about Community Atlas guidelines and project submissions, please visit www.esri.com/communityatlas.

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