Five Y10 Gifted and Talented GCSE Geography students attended a workshop organised by The British Cartographic Society’s Programme Committee and sponsored by ESRI UK.  It drew on their experiences as professional cartographers and GIS experts. The workshop also involved a presentation from ESRI UK, on the use of GIS for such activities, and provided the opportunity for questions on careers in both cartography and GIS.

The focus was the earthquake disaster in Haiti, and the students worked as a team to create a summary map for use in the disaster area.   Each student had a role to play: The military; Search and rescue teams; Medical; Humanitarian aid; and Coordination and mapping team.  They used both paper and digital resources to help them create their map. A discussion then followed on good map design.

Kieran (Coordination and mapping team)

My part was to make sure that the team was doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing. As co-ordinator I had to take all the vital information, from all the other people, and then place it accordingly on a map.  This is to in the end help solve the puzzle of re-building homes and places of recreation for the people of Haiti.  Overall I thought the day was very useful indeed and that maps are more than just a pretty drawing, they have meaning and useful qualities.

Faith (Humanitarian aid)

I had to work out a way to distribute shelter boxes to the necessary people.  This made me realise how hard the communication was to the injured victims due to many roads being closed and inaccessible. I also had to find flat pieces of land where base camps could be built showing me that, in desperate measures, any useable facility was used.  Overall I believe it was worth going and I learnt about different map types that are available to use.

Sophie (Search and rescue teams)

I had to find suitable flat land for helicopters to land and bring in resources needed for the earthquake victims.  I had to research and find out what roads were unusable and got destroyed in the disaster. It helped me understand the damage that was caused and to the extent it happened. It shows me that in desperate times of need, the world can come together and help re-build broken homes and lives. I think the morning was very informative and I did learn that maps are a lot more useful, than people believe; I think we should not just rely on sat-navs. Time, effort and money are spent on paper maps and we take them for granted, when a bigger more advance technological equipment comes along, the traditional good old paper maps get pushed aside, we should use them more often.

Sarah (Medical team)

My role was to figure out where to put the hostels on the basis that it had to be situated near main roads and in a clear flat place near to the refugees. I also supplied all the medical needs for injured victims, and worked with the Military Officer then organised all the travelling of the medicines needed. I soon found out that new hospitals needed to be built as old existing ones got damaged in the earthquake.  I came across many problems with this due to the spacing, damage to roads and buildings and financial troubles. In general I thought today has been a good day and I was amazed by just how much organisation and planning it took to sort out the catastrophe.

Tyler (The military)

My role was to figure out where planes could land and where we could build new buildings.  I had to figure out how all the necessities could be delivered to the worst hit places. I had to work with all of the other people to make all of my jobs work, and I found this task very good and enjoyable. I found it hard to come up with a final individual plan to help Haiti get back on its feet, so I ended up with the conclusion that we should blow the whole place up and start again.  As we had to work together my plan was over ruled.  I think the day was very good and I enjoyed it very much. I loved all the freebies, especially the tie!