Geotechnical Services provides students with field experience through cemetery mapping project

After acquiring additional land, a Nodaway County cemetery recruited Northwest Missouri State University’s Geotechnical Services team to assist with a surveying and mapping project that allowed students and faculty to apply their technical knowledge to a community-focused project.

In 2023, LaMar Cemetery representatives connected with the University to help provide students with a profession-based learning opportunity, under the direction of Dr. Brett Chloupek, a Northwest professor of geography and director of Geotechnical Services.

The project unfolded in two phases. In the first phase, Chloupek and his students conducted a physical survey of the cemetery addition, marking burial plots and using drones to capture aerial imagery. Phase two required them to create an updated digital map of the entire cemetery, which can be more easily updated as the landscape evolves.

“Older records, uneven terrain and existing headstones can make mapping cemeteries a challenge to work with, but we adapted our methods and figured it out,” Chloupek said.

Northwest Geotechnical Services students, faculty and staff recently completed a partnership with LaMar Cemetery representatives to surveying and map its land. (Submitted photo)

As the two-year project provided opportunities for geographic information science students to get involved, Hannah Poole, a senior geographic information science major from Troy, Missouri, assisted by working with GPS and surveying equipment, taking measurements and organizing cemetery plots.

Poole said the work gave her a clearer understanding of how classroom lessons apply in professional field settings.

“The most impactful part of the experience was seeing how the whole process works,” Poole said. “Working with landowners and seeing the surveying side was really interesting. And in classes, we learn about elevation and topography for mapping, so seeing that in action in an area with uneven terrain was really helpful.”

Kyra Kamp, a Geotechnical Services coordinator, also helped with the project by utilizing GPS to record coordinates for the cemetery layout. The land’s terrain created challenges in connecting with satellites, which emphasized for Kamp the value of collecting accurate data.

Kamp graduated from Northwest in 2024 with bachelor’s degrees in geography with a GIS emphasis and in geology with an environmental emphasis.

“It’s nice to have the knowledge to use the data on the computers, but working in the field changed my perspective on the importance of understanding how that data was collected,” Kamp said. “That’s why field experience is valuable, both for me and for other geotech students, to take the opportunity to go to those field projects or get an internship.”

The experience enhanced Kamp’s technical and analytical skills while allowing her to reflect on her future roles in geographic information science.

“Just having the opportunity to learn something new out in the field was pretty impactful for me,” Kamp said. “It also gave me something to think about – whether to be comfortable in the office or to take the opportunity to go out in the field and collect my own data.”

In addition to its work with LaMar Cemetery, Geotechnical Services is involved in a Northwest partnership with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to edit and update topographic maps. Such projects extend Northwest students’ learning beyond the classroom environment, equipping them with the skills needed to be job-ready in their fields.

“I like it whenever we can do community-related projects that show our University is providing something useful and meaningful to the community,” Chloupek said. 

For more information about programs in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, including the geographic information science major, visit www.nwmissouri.edu/socialsciences/.