LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

Introduction

This introductory GIS activity will acquaint the student with the geographic location of SNP within counties, within Virginia, and in relation to their school. The activity will provide layers of data that are linked geographically that allow the student to visualize the data. The activity will allow the student to show the location of the park boundary to their home school.

Instructional Objectives

1. Students will be able to add themes to create a visual illustration.
2. Students will be able to label counties that the park borders.
3. Students will be able to identify the location of their home school using the "places" theme.
4. Students will be able to make a layout of Virginia including counties, park boundary, bordering county names, and home school location.

Time To Complete

1 class period (45 minutes, depending on students' previous knowledge)

Materials and Preparation Needed

1. ArcVoyager or ArcView needs to be loaded onto the computer.
2. Make a directory DOWNLOAD THE DATA and unzip.
3. Add the following themes:
• Places
• Snp_bnd
• Vacounties

Map Projection and Units

The map projection is UTM zone 18. The map unit is meters.

Procedure

If you have experience with the software, go ahead and get started. If you need a tutorial, download and unzip the following movies. Double click on the unzipped movies to view.

• Layering
• Labeling
• Query

Create a layout of Virginia including counties, park boundary, bordering county names, and home school location.