Digital Quest, Inc.

SkillsUSA Geospatial Technology Contest
SkillsUSA instituted a college/postsecondary-only contest in Geospatial Technology in 2005. The third Geospatial contest will be held at the 2008 SkillsUSA Championships in downtown Kansas City, Missouri June 23-June 27, 2008. College/postsecondary students studying GIS, RS and GPS from across the country are invited to compete.

Who qualifies?
All registered College or University GIS students.

How do I sign up for this contest?
First, you must fill out the Contest Registration Form.

Second, you will need to be a member of SkillsUSA. Complete and submit the SkillsUSA Sign Up Form. Also include a check for the cost of membership - between $ 16.00 and $22.50 depending on your state. To find your state’s membership fee, go online to http://www.skillsusa.org/join/statedues.shtml. Refer any questions to kperrino@skillsusa.org.

We will verify the information on your registration and submit your registration to SkillsUSA, so be quick and be complete!!!!

The first 50 students that we verify are College or University students registered in programs that teach GIS will get invitations to the contest.

What will I have to do?
Show off your Geospatial Skills!!!

The qualified contestants will receive the STARS certification kits, worth $500 including a 60-day license of ESRI ArcView 9.2 software. We will send you a formal invitation to the contest and give you a password protected ftp site. There you will down load this years STARS Geospatial Project. You will need to prepare this project in advance and bring it with you to the contest.

In Kansas City, the contestants will orally defend their GIS project, as well as take a written technical knowledge test and a hands-on test of Geospatial Technology skills. So bring your computers!!!!!

Contest orientation followed by a written technical test will begin at 2:00PM on Monday, June 23. Each contestant will turn in his or her STARS GIS project at that time. On Tuesday morning, from 7:30 a.m. to ?noon, 25 students will offer oral defenses and demonstrations of the completed project they brought to the national contest, while the other 25 students participate in a hands-on, project based test of their Geospatial skills. From 12:30 p.m. to ?5:00 p.m., the two groups will switch. All contestants will attend the Opening Ceremony Tuesday evening of the National Leadership and Skills Conference, and then attend a debriefing and awards ceremony for the contest on Wednesday morning. Contestants will be free to depart for home after 12 noon on Wednesday, June 25th.

Those contestants at the Kansas City competition whose aggregate score reaches at least 75 percentile will be awarded STARS Certification. STARS (Spatial Technology and Remote Sensing) is a fully developed “turn-key” Certification program for high schools, colleges and universities as well as career professionals looking to integrate geospatial tools into their on-the-job skill set.

The gold medalist will receive a complete ArcGIS ArcView and four Extensions software package worth $10,000 and a $1,000 cash scholarship to reimburse travel expenses to Kansas City. Prizes for the silver and the bronze medalist include the ArcGIS ArcView software package, and $500 and $250 scholarship, respectively. Prizes and awards for other contestants are still in development. Determination of winners will be the sole responsibility of the judges and all decisions will be final. We reserve the right to limit the number of awards given.

Contestants are responsible for all travel and lodging costs and are required to pay a registration fee of $115 to attend the conference.

The “GIS Group” that is serving as the technical committee presently consists of

Digital Quest, Inc. (Eddie Hanebuth, Austin Smith)

Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI: Esther Worker, Charlie Fitzpatrick & Ann Johnson)

The Institute for Advanced Education in Geospatial Sciences (Dr. Pamela B. Lawhead)

The Mississippi Enterprise for Technology (B. Greg Hinekebein)

We continue to seek: (a) expanded representation on the Geospatial Technology national technical committee; (b) judges: (c) contest equipment; and (d) prizes for place winners or for all the contest’s Kansas City participants. What did last years test and competition look like? The 2007 Skills USA exam is posted on the ESRI ArcLessons web site (www.esri.com/arclessons), search titles for SkillsUSA to find the exam.