On Wednesday some students in Helena got a lesson on geographic information systems, an up-and-coming technology that's changing the world. It was all part of this week being recognized as Geography Awareness Week.

Unlike flat paper maps, GIS, short for geographic information systems, allows people to analyze relationships between many layers of information at once. As part of GIS Day 2009, some Helena 5th graders traveled to the Montana State Library to receive interactive demonstrations on the technology.

Jennie Stapp, Digital Library Administrator, explains, "We're talking to children about geography being things like political boundaries, states, and countries, but also things like mountains and rivers, plains, elevation, precipitation, all of that information that impacts their environment."

Library staff explained the many capabilities of GIS to the students.

Stapp says, "Things like how to make decisions about whether or not to build a dam in a particular area, we use this information to analyze where particular species live."

Justin Fruh, a Smith School 5th grader, says, "We're going to be learning how to use GPS and about different animals"

Remy Snezek, another Smith school 5th grader, explains, "We're looking up different types of animals and we're seeing where they've been found."

As GIS technology becomes more accessible to Montanans, those with the library stress the importance of continuing to expose younger generations to it as well.

Stapp adds, "The ultimate goal of today is helping children simply understand what geography is, how geography impacts their lives, and how they can use things like computers to understand that information."

For more information, head to http://msl.mt.gov/