Searching for Bigfoot and Others Like Him
Figure 1. Reported sightings of bigfoot in the US and Canada by state/province. Though bigfoot, as a cryptid, is not taken seriously by most of the scientific community, much anecdotal and testimonial evidence exists.Copyright 2008 Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO), Wiikipedia Commons {PD} http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bigfoot_Sightings_in_USA.png
Cryptids, creatures of questionable existence, are used as a source of data to guide students into the creation of their own GIS data layer in Google Earth. The activity serves the purpose of a tutorial to teach students how to make data layers with a simple subject. Then they use that skill on other topics such as plastics in their neighborhood.
Engineers that employ GIS as a tool often create their own spatial data layers in order to analyze data collected in the field or generated in a model. In this activity, students get an opportunity to make their own simple data layers. This teaches them the value of good coordinate gathering and information organization to be placed into a spatial context.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Pull spatial coordinates from Google Earth from any location in the world.
- Find corresponding spatial locations in Google Earth using descriptions external to anything in Google Earth.
- Manipulate basic bit of information in Microsoft Excel® and in Google Documents.
- Search for images and websites related to a topic of information for the purposes of presentation in an interactive map.