Place Based Interdisciplinary Projects

Place-Based Interdisciplinary Projects

Steve BeckelhimerJune Harless Center for Rural Educational Research & Development

Mike LittleIntegrated Science & Technology

Marshall University – Huntington, WV

Presented to the West Virginia Environmental Education

Association

March 13, 2010Harper’s Ferry, WV

Goals

• Students should develop a pride in their place• Science, mathematics, and other content

should be integrated in the students’ place• Students should collect information, organize

it and prepare it for use by others• Appropriate technology and communication

skills should be used to share data

Work Flow

• Students use GPS receivers to collect location data from study sites.

• They mark the site as a waypoint

Image Data• Students take snapshots of the area with

inexpensive digital cameras• The image date and time are recorded on paper

along with the name of the GPS waypoint

Environmental Data

• Students can collect any appropriate environmental data from the site

• The data should be recorded with the location name as well as the date and time.

Hardware

• Garmin eTrex Venture Hc GPS receivers are used for their simplicity and durability ($130)

• RCA Small Wonder or Aiptek video cameras take quality photos and video at a low price ($110)

• Vernier LabQuest units provide a professional workflow, versitility and useability ($300)

Software

We use free open source software whenever possible–Google Earth–GPS Trackmaker–Quantum GIS–DNR Garmin–Picasa

Practice

• If you will make certain that your notebook computers are powered on and connected to the network, we will make a few points and follow a workflow similar to the data entry following fieldwork data collection.

Google Earth

• Go to http://earth.google.com• Download and install Google Earth

Make certain to uncheck this box.

Agree to the terms of use and download

Launch Google Earth

• After Google Earth has installed, launch the program.

• Connection to the Internet is required since most of the displayed information is not stored on your computer but is downloaded as needed.

• The installation will place an icon for Google Earth on your desktop

Configure Google Earth

• Choose Options from the Tools menu

Choose the default Lat/Long setting to be Degrees and Decimal Minutes

Click the OK button to continue

In the Layers Palate, uncheck everything except Roads and Borders and Labels

Entering Data

• Minimize Google Earth (don’t close)• Start Internet Explorer • Go to http://www.marshall.edu/AMSP• Take the link to presentations• Find the link to the WVEEA Conference• Open the document for GPS locations

Basic Placemarks

• Switch back to Google Earth and make a placemark by clicking the pushpin icon in the top row

This will open up a dialog box for the placemark.

Give the placemark a name from the data file that you opened from the website.

Enter the latitude and longitude from the same data file.

Describe the area using correct grammar and spelling.

When you have finished describing the area, click the OK button.

Checking the Placemark

• The placemark that you just created should show up as a pushpin on the map

Use the slider to zoom in on the pushpin

The hand tool can be used to drag the pin back to the center of the screen

The place you just created should also show up the Places palate on the left side of your screen in the My Places folder

Click on the pushpin or the name in the Places palate

The Placemark should pop up

The placemark name appears at the top in bold

The body of the placemark is the descriptive text that you entered

Enhancing Placemarks

• Right click on the pushpin or the placemark name in the Places palate

• Choose Properties from the menu

The placemark entry box should open.

Click the pin icon in the upper right of the dialog box

Choose an icon that is more appropriate than the generic pin

Click in the color area to change the color of the icon

Choose one of the basic colors

or blend your own color

Click OK when you are finished

The size (scale) of the icon can be changed as can the opacity although it is not recommended.

Click OK when you are finished

Click OK again to confirm your edits

Adding image data to a placemark

• If you have images in a web accessible area through a site like Flickr, Photobucket or Picasa, you can have that image appear in your placemark

• This example will use Picasa as a location for storing and accessing photos

Open Picasa Webalbum

Go to http://picasaweb.google.com/WVTraining

Click the Sign in Link in the upper right corner.

In this example, use the Email: WVTraining and the password, Marshall

Click the Sign in button

Click on the WVEEA album to see the images that have been uploaded for this conference

Click the image of the flag tree to see it larger

A larger view of the image should open showing the flag tree

Click “Link to this Photo”

Make the image size “Medium”

Right click “Embed Image ” and choose “Copy”

Inserting the Image in the Placemark

Right click the placemark name in the My Places

palate or on the map icon and choose “Properties”.

In the Description area of your placemark properties, enter the code <p> to skip to the next line.

Right click below the code you just entered and choose “Paste”

A lot of code should have been pasted into your placemark description. This links to the image in your Picasa webalbum.

Click OK to close the dialog box.

Previewing the placemark

Click the pushpin on the map or on the name of the placemark in the Places palate to see how the placemark looks

The placemark should open showing the text you entered and your image.

Click the X to close the placemark box

Adding more images to the Placemark

• You can have more than one image for the placemark by using the same techniques as before

• If you have multiple images, both should come from the same location (lat/long)

• Too many images may distract from your text

• Open the placemark properties and put a <p> below the previous image’s link

• Copy a link to another photo in the same way as before and paste the link below the <p> code

Click OK to close the dialog box.

Enter Data about the placemark

• In addition to text, you can enter data about a placemark.

• Students can record any number of environmental variables and be able to post that data in the description of their placemarks

• Students may color code pushpins for data ranges

Enter additional placemarks

• Return to the data sheet and locate additional site and create placemarks for them.

• Each of these additional placemarks will be an entry in your “My Places” folder

Saving and sharing

• Placemarks can be saved to your computer as a common file type to be shared with others

• To save ALL placemarks, make sure there is a check in the box to the left of each placemark’s icon

Right click on the My Places folder and choose “Save

Place As. . . “ from the dropdown menu.

If you click on one placemark and choose “Save Place As. . .” only that one placemark will be saved.

Browse to the location where the file is to be saved

Give the file a name other than “My Places”

Change the file type to kml which is the most universal Click the Save button

to continue

Note that kml files are very small since they do not contain the images, only links to the images.These kml files can be emailed to anyone who can then see your locations, data, descriptions and images in one place.

For more information

• All handouts are available for download and free use at: http://www.marshall.edu/AMSP

• Additional GPS/GIS information can be found at: http://gis.marshall.edu

• You may contact Mike Little at little@marshall.edu or Steve Beckelhimer at sbeckelh@access.k12.wv.us

Supporters