The Geospatial Information Competition’s 2018 Winners

The 2018 winners

Following an flurry of entries and exciting activity, one pair of students rose about the rest of the pack to be declared the winners of the 2018 Geospatial Information Competition.

Elizabeth and Micah

In first place, we have Elizabeth Peabody and Micah Edwards from Nowra Christian School in NSW. Studying year 7 last year, Elizabeth and Micah completed a storymap called ‘Using spatial technology to optimise nest box placement’. The judges felt that they cleverly used the data they had collected, wielding geospatial tools and geospatial information very well to outline their problem, analyse it and come to a conclusion. You can find their winning entry here.

The prize

Elizabeth, Micah and their supervising teacher Leah Arthur were flown to Melbourne for the APSEA Gala Dinner to receive an award, discuss their work with industry representatives, and to see how geospatial tools can be used in the real world.

First prize also nets Elizabeth and Micah $1,000 cash.

“It was a fantastic way to show the kids the real-world applications of emerging technologies,” Mrs Arthur said of the competition. “I think what I was most proud of was that these guys started with a goal but very little idea of how to get to the goal, and every time a challenge was put in front of them they just rose to the challenge. They didn’t expect the answer to come to them. As a teacher, that’s pretty impressive.”

The competition also taught the two winners a lot. Micah says he learnt how to collect a lot of information, then, “Put it into something that is really meaningful and actually has a purpose.”

Elizabeth found the competition inspiring. “We set out doing something just locally and it’s actually got to a national level where we can talk about something we’re passionate about to a whole group of people who are probably more interested than a lot of the people we know.

“I think it’s been really empowering to know that as kids – like, 13 years olds – we have a voice in our local and national environment.”