GIS for Home Schoolers, Students, Job Changers

GIS is a wonderful way to visualize trends and connections in data that might otherwise not be so obvious or might be missed altogether. GIS can be learned by young and old, school students and home-schoolers. For those already in a career, GIS can add extra value to your position. If you are new to GIS, I've prepared a brief introduction.

Next, consider learning the basics of GIS with the free Learn2Map GIS Tutorial and Shapefile Atlas. It includes free GIS software and access to free GIS shapefiles.

Once you have completed the tutorial, you can find free GIS software applications and free GIS shapefiles at MapCruzin.com.

You can check out some of the things we have done with GIS at Maptivist.com.

Mike Meuser

GIS Project Development, Data Research and Custom Shapefile Creation
Free GIS Software, Shapefiles, Maps and Tutorials
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If you have data, GIS project or custom shapefile needs send me an email

Premium Shapefiles: ZipCode, Indian & Federal Lands, School Districts, Tornadoes, Dams, Climate Change & Global Warming

GIS Software Program Application for Students & Educators

When I needed to learn GIS it was not supported in my college sociology program so I had to finance myself. Unfortunately then there were few free options and none suited my purpose. Things have changed in the 20 years since then. Students and educators can now take advantage of the free and open source GIS programs and tools that are available. Also, we offer a free GIS tutorial and shapefile atlas. See links at bottom of this post. Here are some of the GIS software applications and tools available there are many many more:


Chameleon is a distributed, highly configurable, environment for developing Web Mapping applications. Chameleon is OpenSource, this means that you can use it freely for your own applications, and that you also have access to the source code.

Community MapBuilder - MapBuilder is a powerful, standards compliant, open source geographic mapping client which runs in a web browser. Using MapBuilder, Web designers can concentrate on the presentation and usability using HTML with simple links to the MapBuilder JavaScript code.

CPSGeo - Simple GIS for CPS - Cartographic maps are extremely useful tools for analyzing and summarizing information with a spatial component, and many CPS documents have a spatial component: events happen at places, and reports are often concerned with places.

CRAN Task View: Analysis of Spatial Data - For spatial analysis, disease and ecological mapping and more.

CrimeStat III is Windows-based and interfaces with most desktop GIS programs. The purpose is to provide supplemental statistical tools to aid law enforcement agencies and criminal justice researchers in their crime mapping efforts.

CycleAtlas is a free, open-source software for managing track rides, mainly intented for cycling and other open air sports.

DC Maintenance Management System - A web-based maintenance management system for water and wastewater networks. Allows to store customer complaints and issue workorder sheets.Rather than using street names, maps and landmarks are used for navigation.

deegree - Free Software for Spatial Data Infrastructures - offers the substantial building blocks for the building of a Spatial Data Infrastructure by implementing the standards of the Open Geospatial Consortium. Deegree components can be used to either develop a standalone desktop mapping solution to be locally installed on a users machine, or to set up a highly distributed and service-based infrastructure.

Free GIS Software and Tools for Students and Educators

Free Learn2Map GIS Mapping Tutorial and Shapefile Atlas

GeoWeb 2008 Student Competition

GeoWeb says, "To advance the development of the GeoWeb, we are sponsoring a contest, which is open to all full time students attending an educational institution anywhere in the world. The objective of the contest is to materially advance the development of the GeoWeb." Deadline is May 15, 2008.