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By Nicholas M. Horrock
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
Rappahannock County High School has been chosen as one of four Virginia schools to pilot a new course in Geospatial Technology that firmly moves the school’s vocational training into the 21st century and opens the way for important community projects as well as classroom . instruction, according to teachers and experts.
George Wilcox, director of Technology Education at the Virginia Department of Education advised school officials this spring that under the program, RCHS will be “licensed to install the software on all computers,” provided by ESRI, a national geospatial software producer, that will introduce students to global positioning systems (GPS), geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing (RS) .and image processing (IP).
Geospatial Technology has become a key element of the United States’ vast technological advantage.
The GPS system is a constellation of 27 satellites that orbit the earth. A GPS receiver acquires radio signals from these satellites and is able to precisely pinpoint the “coordinate address,” that is the longitude and latitude, on the surface of the earth.
U.S. armed forces have for nearly two decades perfected GPS for precision bombing and artillery fire as well as maneuvering units on the ground and navigating fighters and bomber aircraft. It has encoded the military signals to prevent blocking of military commands in time of war. The U.S. was fearful Iraq had obtained blocking technology from the Russians in March 2003.
The civilian use of GPS is more extensive. It directs London cabs through city streets, allows tracking of cell phones, navigates ocean-going vessels and lets hunters identify and relocate their hunting stands.
When GPS couples with geographic information systems
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