This project is improving the education of undergraduate students by adding a fully functional geographic information systems (GIS) laboratory facility. The improvements are being made by purchasing computer hardware and software and placing them under the administration of a GIS professional. These facilities integrate and complement the already well-developed technological infrastructure of the college. This college is charged by the state of Idaho to provide education and training that is relevant to the economic situation of North Idaho and that is accessible to nontraditional students. These students include Native Americans, single parents, displaced workers, first-generation college students, and people who can only attend school at places or times not served by other institutions. The economy of North Idaho relies on natural-resource industries including agriculture, forest products, and minerals, and the government agencies that oversee them. All of these employers rely heavily on spatial data in their decision-making. All natural-science students currently receive technology-based, field-oriented instruction. Formalizing the manipulation and analysis of spatial data in the context of GIS is a logical complement to this educational philosophy. The GIS lab enables the college to offer formal courses in GIS, to use GIS in other courses across many disciplines, to incorporate GIS into student research projects, and to engage students in professional GIS activities. All of these benefits are available not only to students on campus, but also to the place- and time-bound students served by the college's distance education projects. The GIS facility itself will add data-serving capacity to the college's existing network infrastructure. Education incorporating GIS is inherently interdisciplinary, exposes students to real-world problems, actively involves them in learning, and exposes them to technology that is used by the major employers of the region.
